


Black And White Checkers

by Mirror_Face



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Gen Work, Lots of line breaks, Lots of nicknames, Maki and Kokichi Friendship, Slow Updates, Starts During Chapter 2, What-If, lots of banter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-10
Updated: 2020-06-28
Packaged: 2021-01-27 03:24:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 23,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21385297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mirror_Face/pseuds/Mirror_Face
Summary: ‘Okay… so, I Kokichi Oma shall explain the plan, which may change (so stay flexible)! And Maki, I know you’re shy, so don’t worry about me forcing you into being social, I would never do that! I would just like it if you weren’t such a spoilsport, no one likes spoilsports! You only need to go to breakfast- and stop threatening people- that’s just rude! I’ll guard your Research Room instead, people won’t mind. Also, remember to bring me food (I wouldn’t want to miss Kirumi’s cooking!).Remember to be ready to take my orders at anytime! And if you disagree with any of my plans- shut up! You’re not the Great Chess Master here. You’re just a knight!Bye, bye minion!-Kokichi’Maki looked up from the note and sighed. She couldn’t believe she was being blackmailed the most untrustworthy person in the game. It’s just her luck, she supposed.But just because Kokichi had some hold over her actions didn’t mean she had to do everything he said. There was no way she would allow him to have full reign over the plan. Chess analogies weren’t going to defeat the mastermind, after all.
Relationships: Harukawa Maki & K1-B0, Harukawa Maki & Oma Kokichi, Iruma Miu & Oma Kokichi, Momota Kaito & Saihara Shuichi
Comments: 38
Kudos: 184





	1. Prologue I- Back Rank

**Author's Note:**

> Back Rank- the rank in chess where a player sets up their major pieces

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back Rank: The rank where a player sets up his major pieces

The only sound inside Kokichi’s room was that of his humming as he tried to, one again, rearrange the pictures on his whiteboard. On the left side was Rantaro and Kaede, the only ones dead, while on the right there were organized pictures of his fellow (living) prisoners. 

Kokichi should’ve been asleep, he knew, it was probably around 1:00 AM. But when he’d finally decided to settle down and sleep at (what he assumed to be) 12:00, a ‘Kubz Pad’ was slid under his door. Curious, he’d watched it in the darkness of his room. And Kokichi was (not that) shocked to discover that… Maki Harukawa (the weird, angry girl, he had to remind himself) was the ultimate assassin. Honestly, now that he thought about it, Maki was pretty suspicious. 

Her constant death threats and glares, her guarding of her research lab. It was all so obvious…

She’d lied. Kokichi could see why, but the fact that she lied about something instantly put her on his radar- that and her supposed history of murder. Well, perhaps it would’ve if it had been any other situation, but Maki being the mastermind was a sentiment that just felt wrong, it didn’t seem to fit with the (little) information he had.

Of course it would be foolish to completely rule Maki Harukawa out (she was a killer, after all), but her obviously suspicious behavior could only mean one thing:

Maki wasn’t a good liar.

Well, of course not, Kokichi thought, she’s an assassin. Assassins never have to deal with the consequences to their actions, they never _ have _ to lie, only kill well. And Maki, being an ultimate, meant she was probably the best killer around…

Kokichi stopped his train of thought, tapping the cap of his marker against the metal edge of the whiteboard. He was getting off track. He started shifting around the pictures again, separating Maki’s from the others, pulling her picture closer to the middle. 

“Hmm…”

Could she be the mastermind?

If she was, then why would her behavior be so suspicious. That wouldn’t be smart, easy mysteries are always boring, and the mastermind obviously wanted a fun game. And why send her motive video to him? Why reveal her assassin talent when she could’ve just lied about it on the video- her motive video had children in it anyways, so saying that she was the ultimate child caregiver wouldn’t have been suspicious. 

Mysteries aren’t supposed to be that easy, not any of the good ones, at least. And if there’s one thing Kokichi can depend on the mastermind for, it’s making a good mystery. Maki was just a red herring. He was sure of that.

But, even if Maki wasn’t the mastermind, she was still a dangerous person, a killer. And, to make things worse, she seemed to have a short temper. Plus, if that motive video ever got in her possession, she might end up putting her assassination tecniques to use. If left unsupervised, she could be disastrous to the peace that Kokichi wanted to make. But he couldn’t think of any non-gorey ways to keep her away from the prospect of murder.

Unless...

A shaky alliance, perhaps? Kokichi doubted Maki would be ecstatic to work with him, but he wasn’t excited at the prospect either, so he called it even. Plus, Kokichi realized, it wouldn’t hurt to get a _ little _ help, even if he couldn’t fully trust his partner in crime. And now he could make sure that the assassin wouldn’t murder anyone.

Kokichi grinned wickedly, popping off the cap of his marker.

Blackmail would do the trick, he knew. Maki obviously didn’t want anyone to know about her talent. She clearly had a disadvantage from the beginning, having to make such a large lie so early in the game. In that regard, he supposed he pitied the assassin. 

Looking at the confusing mess that was his whiteboard, Kokichi decided to just rearrange the whole thing. To the right, Kaede and Rantaro stayed, new red Xs drawn over their pictures. To the left, Kokichi had put (most of) the remaining survivors, laid out in four rows of three. Right next to their pictures was neat text, spelling ‘pawns’. Near the top-middle of the board, Kokichi had doodled a portrait of himself, wearing a king’s crown and smiling widely. Underneath himself, he wrote ‘chessmaster’. And at the bottom-middle part of the board was Maki- the words ‘knight (trustworthy?)’ written to the right of her photo.

Then there was the blank space- right in the middle of the board, and where a picture should have been was the word ‘liar’. One day, Kokichi thought, that space won’t be so empty.

Looking back at his handiwork, Kokichi yawned. But he knew that he probably wouldn’t get any sleep at all, he had too much work to do, after all. Because you never know when a murder will happen.

And, with that final thought, Kokichi nabbed his new Kubz Pad and dashed out the door, hurrying down the hall.

It was time to add a new piece to the board.

* * *

_ ‘bang.’ _

_ ‘bang’ _

_ ‘bang’ _

Maki blinked a few times, startled awake inside her dark research lab, surrounded by weapons of all sorts. She was leaning on her lab’s door, and she could hear its vibrations moving across her back. Absent-mindedly, she wondered what time it was. 

Not that it mattered anyways, she thought bitterly.

_ ‘bang’ _

_ ‘bang’ _

The knocking got faster, and she knew that the person would never stop unless she scared them herself. So, she got up and turned to the door, readying her death-glare.

Maki opened the door a little, blocking her any crack that might show what’s inside her research room with her body.

_ ‘ban-’ _

“What do you w-”

And, finally, she processed who was standing there. It was Kokichi Oma (the annoying little brat), holding some kind of electrontic pad.

“Hello, hello, hello! What a wonderful morning it is! Don’t you agree, Miss Assassin?” His lips twisted into a wicked smile.

And, without thinking, she reached for the little hellspawn’s throat. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [My Tumblr](https://mirror-face.tumblr.com/)


	2. Prologue II- Bughouse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maki is having a hard time dealing with such an unfair situation and Kokichi lazes around in the hallway (coming up with a plan halfway through).
> 
> But, it seems that despite all of Kokichi's best efforts, he might be playing the wrong game.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully none of you get confused with the diolauge- I tried to make personality (especially for Kokichi) shine through, so hopefully it won't be a problem.
> 
> Also; Bughouse- A variant of chess with two players on each side.

Maki sighed with as much conviction as she could muster, which, at that moment, wasn’t very much. She couldn’t believe her luck, being stuck as an on-call dog for the most childish, annoying, least trustworthy person in the entire game. The mastermind obviously had something to do with them having each other’s pads. It was just too perfect, like the mastermind was setting them up to kill each other. Perhaps that’s how other people’s Kubz Pads were assigned, not randomly, but calculated in such a way that people could easily turn against each other.

And, as much as Maki hated to admit it, the mastermind had almost won the night before. If she hadn’t stopped choking Kokichi in time, she would of had an easy-to-solve murder on her hands. She would have been likely to die.

But, Maki lamented, perhaps killing the little brat would have been a better course of action. Because after she’d finally let him go, he’d explained his lofty proposal and blackmailed her. Yes, perhaps it wasn’t just bad luck, maybe the mastermind just hated her. And so, she was stuck with the lying asshole kid and his flimsy, ever-changing plan. That much she could gather from her (probably past) midnight interaction with him.

_ “What. Do. You. Want?” _

_ “Heh… What’s with that animosity? Shouldn’t you be more hospitable to your guests?” _

_ “Do you want to die?” _

_ “Nishishi… It’s not like you can kill me anyways. It’s too much of a risk, right? That’s why you didn’t just kill me in the hallway.” _

_ “Shut up. Now, what do you want?” _

_ “Well… I guess I just want a guard dog.” _

Maki still couldn’t believe what Kokichi was making her do. Yes, his idea made some sort of sense, especially when looking at it from a long-term view. But just the simple thought of leaving her lab, and Kokichi alone in it, was enough to make her shudder, never mind actually doing it.

But it seemed that, like always, she didn’t get a say in what she could or could not do. Because Maki was just a simple dog, or at least that’s how Kokichi had phrased it, meant to be dragged around on a leash. Maki gritted her teeth at the memory of the early morning.

_ “Why would I trust you with all of these dangerous weapons? You’ll probably end up stealing something…” _

_ “Well why should I trust you with all of these weapons, huh? And what you think doesn’t matter anyways, I’m the blackmailer, you have to listen to what I say!” _

_ “You sound like a child…” _

_ “Plus, you need to at least come to breakfast! Guarding your research lab’s door all day will just plant suspicion, and the next time a murder happens, you’ll be first on their suspect lists! Like, jeez Maki, haven’t you thought about any of this stuff?” _

_ “...What about you? Won’t it be suspicious if you don’t come to breakfast?” _

_ “But Maki, I’m always suspicious! Meaning it doesn’t matter whether I’m there or not. Plus, having a partner in crime wouldn’t make any sense if both of us aren’t trustworthy! So, unless I need you to do something else, always try to have an alibi, okay? I’m not playing around here!” _

Her fingers curled up into fists, and her footsteps seemed to get a little louder, until she stopped walking through the hallway and decided to take a break. She’d been told that the main reason she was even going to breakfast was to remain unsuspicious and make her talent of ultimate child caregiver believable. She couldn’t walk in angry if she wanted to do that.

_ “What makes you think I would let you stay inside my lab unsupervised?” _

_ “Well, why not? I mean, if I was planning a murder, wouldn’t that be better for you? I would be out of your hair completely, because you know I’ll get caught.” _

_ “You might break something.” _

_ “Awww… that’s so disappointing! Maki, why didn’t you just say so? You don’t want me to break one of your precious weapons! Why? Planning on killing someone?” _

_ “...” _

_ “Exactly. You don’t need them, do you?” _

_ “How are you going to commit to any of your ‘master plans’ if you’re stuck guarding my lab all day?” _

_ “Don’t you worry about that! I’ll come up with something. But you’ll have to pick up your slack at around five, okay?” _

_ “Fine…” _

Having finally calmed down a little, Maki continued walking, all the way to the cafateria’s door. Maki didn’t know if she would ever be ready for walking into a room of psychopaths, because it seemed that having to deal with Kokichi wasn’t enough torture. It’ll be fine, she told herself (only half convinced), she just had to walk in, eat breakfast, and leave. That’s all she had to do.

One hour later, she was still stuck in the cafeteria- with Miu screaming like a banshee, Kaito shouting that “no one is going to kill each other!” and Tsumugi’s constant references to obscure anime- as everyone tried to discuss what they should do about the new motive. By the end of it, Ryoma had stormed off, Maki had a headache, and they all agreed to keep their motive videos to themselves. Before she left, however, Kaito (and, by extension, Shuichi) stopped her to ask where Kokichi was. She shrugged her shoulders, and got out of there as fast as possible (without breaking into a sprint).

And- honest to god- Maki would’ve taken Kokichi over that any day.

* * *

Kokichi was so unbelievably bored. He had thought that standing guard in an assassin’s lab of weapons would be one of the most incredible experiences of his entire life. It was supposed to be both fun and informative! What type of weapons do assassins use? Apparently only guns and crossbows. And that was the only thing he learned! Maki was such a boring person, she was like a main character in a lame action movie. 

The only interesting thing Kokichi ended up doing was watching his motive video (which he decided to leave in the safety of Maki’s lab).

And so, that tortures path of boredom lead him to the outside of Maki’s lab- which he guarded like a valiant knight (before he remembered that that was supposed to be Maki’s job, so he just sat on the ground like a bored chessmaster), waiting for something interesting to happen. 

And about an hour later, something did happen, Shuichi walked by. And in his hunger (for Kokichi had missed breakfast, the most important meal of the day), he’d shouted Shuichi over, to try and haggle for something to eat.

“Hey, Shuichi! Do you have something to eat? I’m reallllllyy hungry, y’know! I missed breakfast, and it’s all your fault, Shuichi!”

“H-huh?” Though startled, Shuichi walked over to talk to him, “What do you want Kokichi?”

“I already tooollld you! Shuichi, give me the food that you have stolen from me!”

“I-I haven’t stolen your food!”

“Yeah, you haven’t. That was a lie…”

Shuichi muttered,“Yeah, I thought so.”

“But I am really hungry, so give me food!”

Shuichi sighed, “Fine…” then he stuffed his hand in his pocket, looking for something edible. Finally, he fished out a bag of caramels. “All I have is this from the MonoMono Machine. But you probably shouldn’t eat sweets so early in the day…”

“Nope, this is fine.” And Kokichi swiped the bag of caramels from Shuichi’s hands, plopping it in his mouth after.

A moment of silence passed.

And then Shuichi broke it by saying, “Hey… Kokichi?”

“Yeah?”

“What are you doing in front of Maki’s lab?”

“Oh, you know, trying to reveal her secrets.”

“Really?”

Evading the question, Kokichi asked, “What are you doing in front of Maki’s lab, huh? Trying to murder her?”

“N-no! Y-you called me over here!”

“Oh, so you’re trying to murder me?”

“No! Of course not…”

“You’re so boring Shuichi! Why can’t your reactions be more original?”

“Why would you care if my reactions are original?”

“Wow, how unoriginal!”

“...” Shuichi looked away, grabbing his hat so he can lower it over his eyes, before realizing that he’s not wearing it anymore, and leaving his hands to awkwardly hang at his sides.

Finishing his last caramel, Kokichi smacked his lips, “Mmmm… Thank you Shuichi! That was just what I needed! Missing breakfast sure is a pain…”

There was some more silence before Shuichi interrupted it again.

“Uh… hey, Kokichi…?”

“Yeah, what?”

“Did you get a Kubz Pad?”

“Yeeup!” Kokichi chirped back, knowing where the conversation was going.

“Have you shown it to anyone?”

“No, of course not! Who would want my boring, old Kubz Pad?” 

“Just… We agreed not to show each other our Kubz Pads, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah! I get it… You don’t trust me, do you?” And he squeezed out some tears- for dramatic effect, of course.

“W-what, n-no! It’s not tha-!”

“Jeez you really are gullible! How boring! Now go away! I don’t want to see your boring face anymore!”

Shuichi opened his mouth, like he wanted to say something- before walking off.

Well, Kokichi still wasn’t not bored. He sighed, wishing he had a pack of cards to play with. Shuichi just wasn’t entertaining enough to hold his attention, he’s too easy to tease- which made him too hard to tease. Shuichi would never give a strong reaction other than some stuttering and quick denials.

Kokichi sighed as he stared at the empty halls in clear boredom. Now, what was he going to do about the motive? It seemed that no one was really going to do anything to get rid of them, which, when he really thought about it, seemed like a bad idea. Someone could have gotten their own- like the mastermind. Perhaps it was just an empty screen, never meant to actually be seen by anyone.

What to do? What to do? He could force everyone to watch every Kubz Pad, but then Maki’s secret would be revealed- and that would be bad. Perhaps he could just steal them from everyone’s rooms, he could lock pick after all. Yeah, that would work, and he could get Maki to help out. And they could store it… in Maki’s lab! Ah, yes, the perfect plan…

And that is how his last few hours guarding the lab went- Kokichi planning vigorously. By the time Maki came back to her lab to kick him out (wondering why he was outside of it) and take his post, he had a mostly fleshed out plan and aspirations for a lock. 

He named the plan ‘Operation Clubthorn’, because he’d always wanted to join a gardening club.

* * *

_ “Do you even have a plan?” _

_ “Of course I do!” Kokichi grinned (in all honesty, he really didn’t have one- but improvisation was his fortet). “I have a great plan, I am the grand chessmaster, after all!” _

_ “Then what is-” _

_ “No, no, no! You can’t know yet! The plan is for me to know and for you to find out. But, just so you know, our main goal is to stop the killing game, okay? So stay in control of your killer assassin instincts!” _

_ He could feel Maki’s red hot glare- pointed directly at him- willing him to die a painful death. But at the moment, that didn’t matter. Nothing did but his ever growing excitement. Because, Kokichi could tell, the greatest game of chess ever was about to start. And he was going to win. _

_ (what he didn’t know, however, was that a few rooms over, the mastermind was playing checkers) _

**Chapter 2- Secrets, Lies, and Death’s Divide**

**Daily Life**

**Begin**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some people may not have liked how I dealt with the cliffhanger of last chapter, but I felt that cutting forward to the next day with (mostly) diolauge only scenes in the background was the only good way for me to handle it. I kind of wrote myself into a corner with that one...
> 
> Kokichi's conversation with Shuichi is basicly a FTE. 
> 
> I like to imagine that if Kokichi wasn't at breakfast to cut the disscusion about motive videos short, they would've all stood there and talked about it for an hour before Ryoma just walks off.
> 
> Also, writing Kokichi is surprisingly fun. I hope I'm doing his character justice.
> 
> [My Tumblr](https://mirror-face.tumblr.com/)


	3. Chapter 2- Daily Life I-  Algebraic Notation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Operation Clubthorn is close to being acted upon. Maki is suspicious and Kokichi wants to be prepared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this took so long to make. The writing process of this chapter was so confusing and I spent two weeks completely drained and uninspired. It's all good now though, and while I find that there are a lot of faults with this chapter (specifically the second scene) I'm just glad that I got it out. Again, sorry for the great delay.
> 
> Algebraic Notation- A method for writing moves down by using the names of the pieces and the ranks and files.

_ The night before (otherwise known as the early morning), Maki and Kokichi were busy discussing Kokichi’s newly developed, amazing plan, Operation Clubthorn in the ultimate assassin’s research lab. Kokichi couldn’t seem to stand still, and Maki was sitting down, her back laying on her lab’s door. _

_ “Your plan is to make people plant flowers?” _

_ “Yes!” _

_ “That’s stupid.” _

_ Kokichi pouted, “No it’s not!” _

_ “Why would anyone want to garden at a time like this, especially if the idea is yours?” _

_ “You just don’t seem to understand how much of an idiot everyone in this place is. Of course they’ll all come- if a few of the slower thinkers decide to go and garden, then the others will follow just to make sure I don’t kill anyone! It’s super simple, Maki. I don’t know how you didn’t even think about that!” _

_ “You don’t know what everyone is going to do. You’re even more of an idiot than the others if you don’t even understand that basic fact.” _

_ “I do! But, most will end up going. Two or three people running amuck won’t ruin the entire plan, especially since they don’t know what we’re gonna be up to! Jeez Maki, you worry way too much, it’s like you don’t believe in my amazing planning skills!” _

_ “It’s because you don’t have any”, Maki growled out, “I mean, you do know that Monokuma is just going to replace the motive, right? I don’t see the point in taking away the Kubz Pads.” _

_ “Oh my god, Maki, I can’t believe you don’t trust me! Just know that I do have a plan, I’m just not so much of an idiot that I’ll say it in front of a camera!” Kokichi gestured to the air, like there was a camera there. _

_ “There’s no camera here.” _

_ “Of course there is.” _

_ Maki sighed, then walked to the other end of her research lab, where there seemed to sit a few pages of blank paper and a pen. “I thought we might’ve needed this, because though you seem to think otherwise, I’m not an idiot. And though I didn’t think I would be using this for something so stupid, I guess we have to use it” Maki glared pointedly at him. _

_ “Ohhh… I don’t know about that, but I am pleasantly surprised to hear that you’re a smart little doggy as well… Hmm, fiiiine! I’ll tell you my plan- pass me the paper.” _

_ Maki, still glaring at him, walked back towards Kokichi and gave him the paper and pen. And there he scribbled down his plan to catch the mastermind, making sure that his head blocked any angle leading to a look at the paper. _

_ “Here. Make sure you angle it right. Don’t want to be caught now, do we?” _

_ Maki read the plan silently, eyes widening a little in understanding as she did so, “Fine.” _

_ “You never had a choice~” _

_ Ignoring what she said, Maki countined, “Where are you going to trap the others? And how?” _

_ “We’ll go to Gonta’s lab, of course! Haven’t you noticed that his bug lair has grass? Plus, the big oaf would probably accept my offer about planting roses, I’ll just say that it’ll make his bugs feel at home or something, he’ll take that. And about how, well…” _

_ And at that, Kokichi’s hands reached into his pant’s pockets- taking out two different types of locks (one a sliding lock, the other a simple key-lock) and a somewhat unique looking key. _

_ “Well… that depends… Can you install a lock?” _

_ “Of course I can.” _

_ “Then off fall my chains.” _

* * *

“And to show you all how this place can become our new paradise, Atua announces that Hi-”

That, Kokichi thought, was the perfect time to interrupt with his even better (and more helpful) announcement.

“We should host a gardening session!” He blurted with great excitement- jumping on to the table from his seat.

There was a confused silence before Kokichi decided to elaborate on his point further, improvising slightly- because, he realized, Angie might’ve needed some more convincing that he’d originally thought (and he couldn’t mess up, he could feel Maki’s eyes burning holes into his back, daring him to mess up), “I’ve been hearing a voice in my head, saying that we should all garden in Gonta’s lab!”

Most in the room looked at Kokichi with an air of suspicion- except for Gonta, Angie, and Himiko (who looked to Angie as if to ask if what Kokichi said was true).

Maki broke through the silence, her voice seemingly annoyed, “Atua told you to host a gardening session? Why?”

“To build harmony and peace.” Kokichi responded simply, still standing on the table.

“Well the little fucktard is obviously lying, isn’t he? There’s no such thing as this Atua shit!” Miu interjected loudly.

“Of course he’s lying”, Kaito scoffed.

Angie, however, seemed interested- though not completely deceived. “Atua told you?” She stayed silent, thinking, for a small while, “Hmm… Nyahahahaha! Okay, yep! Kokichi, that’s a brilliant idea that Atua has just given you! Never mind about what I was going to say, that’s postponed for now. Atua has just blessed us with an even better idea!”

“Nishishishishi! Atua’s such a great guy, right?”

Maki sighed but said nothing.

“Nyeh? So Angie, we’re not going to do the magic show?”

“It is as Atua says! I’m sorry Himiko, but we can do it another time. It’s always best to get more practice anyways.”

“I’ll do it for Atua.”

“Hey don’t just brush Himiko aside like that!” Yelled Tenko, approaching Angie, “That’s just mean!”

“Well Himiko doesn’t seem to mind- she knows it’s for the greater good! Nyahaha! How divine!”

“There’s nothing divine about it! Himiko is obviously upset, she just doesn’t want t-”

And the sound of, “_ Rise and shine ursine! _” interrupted Tenko and her ‘defense’ of Himiko.

“Wait, wait, wait! That can’t be right, the magic show is supposed to be in a day or so- youse guys can’t just change that!” Said Monosuke.

“Y-Yeah! You guys are acting like some second handed fanfiction writer who forgot an important plot-point was coming up!” Monophanie added.

“AS-LONG-AS-THEY-ARE-GETTING-ALONG.”

“Uh, y-yeah, that’s important too!” Monotaro said, trying and failing to get back into his leadership role.

“Hmm?” Kokichi spoke up, intrigued. “Why would you care what we do? In fact, how did you even know about the magic show?”

“T-the magic show? Uh…” Monotaro stuttered out, trying to think of (or perhaps remember) an answer. “Umm-”

“Never mind- it doesn’t matter, as long as youse guys get your act together and start the killings, it’s fine. Right?” Monosuke looked promptly at the other Monokubs- who started nodding their heads frantically.

“Then let’s go!” Monotaro led his siblings out. Only Monodam stayed behind.

“I-HOPE-YOU-ALL-GET-ALONG!”

Then he turned and went out the doors, Kokichi shouting, “Don’t worry, I’m sure we will!” after him before finally hopping off the table.

Around him, Kokichi heard a few people whispering about how his scheme was obviously a trick, but he paid them no mind. His plan seemed to be working. He only had to initiate the final step of part one- which was why he went to Gonta.

“Hey Gonta, c’mon, hurry up you slowpoke! Let’s go into the hallway to discuss the details!”

“Uh… Details of what? Gonta no understand…”

“Well the gardening session is obviously going to be held in your lab, duh! So we need to talk about it- there are some things we need to discuss.”

“Wait!” Tsumugi interjected, “Gonta, he’s obviously lying! Don’t be tricked into his evil schemes.”

“Yeah!” Kaito agreed- Shuichi nodding at his side, “Gonta, you don’t have to go with Kokichi! It’s probably a trick!”

“No! I would never trick Gonta! Just who do you think I am?”

It seemed that they would never stop arguing with Kokichi, but after a while, the people who tried to defend Gonta stopped. And Kokichi led him outside to the hallway- winking to Maki as he did.

Maki, once again, just sighed.

* * *

“Sooo, Gonta, about the gardening club… you accept, right? Because, I mean, it would be such a shame if your bugs can’t be happy with flowers just because of a little bit of suspicion!”

“But others tell Gonta that you is tricking Gonta. Say you suspicious.”

“But Gonta, don’t you know?”

“Know what?”

“Being suspicious is just an opinion! Do you _ really _ think that _ I’m _suspicious?” Kokichi made sure to squeeze out a few tears, not too much though- lest it looked fake (though Kokichi was pretty sure that Gonta would have believed it either way, but Kokichi was a careful guy).

“N-no! Gonta not think that! Kokichi is friend and honest!”

A smile slid up Kokichi’s face, “Yeah, I mean I’m such a great person! I’m willing to sacrifice all of my precious time helping make your bugs have a better life!” But then he let a few more tears go down his face, “But n-no one seems to appreciate me, t-they all- they all hate me!”

And he let the waterworks fly.

“A-ah! Don’t you worry Kokichi, Gonta show others how much good person you are.” Gonta said, putting his large hand on Kokichi’s right shoulder, trying to console the (fake) crying Kokichi. “After all you like bugs!”

Kokichi nodded quickly, wanting to get the conversation over with- he had to fill in Gonta on what to do and then plant some seeds of suspicion and doubt.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah! Now let me tell you what you have to do once everyone comes!”

* * *

Once Kokichi had left, breakfast in hand and Gonta in tow, it seemed that the atmosphere in the dining hall had lightened a bit, and after only a few moments of silence, it was as lively as it was before. A few (namely Kaito and Tenko) complained loudly about Kokichi’s schemes. It seemed that they may be going to the announced ‘gardening club’ if only to protect the others (or in Tenko’s case, just the girls). Or so they announced.

After a bit, Tenko had squeezed herself in between Angie and Himiko, trying to get the self-proclaimed mage to talk to her about the upcoming magic show, no seeming to notice how uncomfortable she was. Angie didn’t seem to mind, however, and wandered away, plopping herself down in a once empty seat on Maki’s side of the table. Maki readied herself for the barrage of annoyance that she knew was coming.

“Nyahaha, what are you doing all the way back here, Maki? Y’know Maki, Atua says you should talk more with people!”

Maki, knowing what Angie was trying to do, resigned to her fate, and answered, “What do you want?”

“Nyahaha! I knew you would take Atua’s divine advice! Now, Maki, Atua noticed that you’re coming to breakfast now, why is that?”

“Wouldn’t your god already know that?”

Angie shrugged off the question with, “Atua was sleeping. He needs His naps, you know!”

Maki sighed once again, annoyed and frustrated, “I just decided to come to breakfast, isn’t that good enough?”

“Nyahaha! Atua accepts, for now. So, are you going to come to Himiko’s magic show? Atua says you should, for will feed your belief even further!”

Maki didn’t know how to answer, she hadn’t really thought about going to the magic show in the past few minutes that she had known about it. Maki _ really _didn’t want to go, breakfast was enough with those guys. They were loud and annoying and almost all of them were idiots. “Maybe…”

“Aww…” Angie pouted, seemingly displeased with such a vague answer, “Atua says that you will go, because if everyone isn’t there, something bad will happen!”

“Are you threatening me?” Maki asked, red eyes glaring intensely.

“Nope! But really, you will go. What Atua says is Atua’s will. It’ll be best if you understand that.”

And Maki stared at Angie’s backs as she skipped away, going towards Tsumugi to ask her the same question (or at least that’s what Maki assumed), not willing to save Himiko from Tenko.

And Maki couldn’t help but suspect that Angie was trying to do something in that conversation. Scare her? Or perhaps Angie was trying to get some kind of hold over her, control what she’s able to do, threatening Maki with Atua. And Maki had to admit, the idea that Angie was starting to take control of people (similar to what she did with Himiko) was somewhat intimidating. Sometimes people are willing to listen to made-up gods, even if it’s just to escape reality for just a moment. Or give them reasons as to why terrible things happen, because sometimes people just needed some type of justification to be able to sleep at night.

However, understanding Angie’s plan didn’t make it any less dangerous, being able to sway students with a single mention of god could be detrimental to their goal of making peace. Because even if Angie had good intentions with her plan, the people who aren’t swayed by her preaching of would end up getting upset at becoming some kind of leader. That could cause chaos.

It was a bad situation, and Maki didn’t even know if Angie was aware of the destruction her scheme would cause. If she was aware, then she was most likely the mastermind- trying to disrupt the peace and start up the killings again. If Angie wasn’t aware, then that meant she was an oblivious idiot. Neither were good.

And she grudgingly reminds herself that this is something that Kokichi would want to know (and probably help with, is what she refused to think). She’d tell him soon- maybe while they’re watching the motive videos.

(Maki was so caught up in her own thoughts and suspicions that she completely missed the curious look of a boy detective)

* * *

Not having to guard Maki’s lab was really helpful when it came to completing his new (and relatively easy) goal. Make people suspicious of him? Piece of cake, honestly. Especially since he’d tricked the most oblivious people in the group in a very obvious manner. Having Angie and Gonta on board kind of lead a lot of people into his and Maki’s trap (though it was mostly his). 

Kokichi would also have to assume that Kaito would be going as well (because he was an idiot) and that Shuichi would be going as well (because Shuichi seemed to be following Kaito around like a lost puppy that had been kicked way too many times. If Angie was going that would mean Himiko would be going, which would mean Tenko would follow. And if Gonta was going then Tsumugi probably would as well. Hmm, lots and lots of people would be falling for his awesome trap. And Kokichi couldn’t help but feel a little proud.

At the time, he was practicing his lock picking skills on his own dorm room’s door, when Kokichi suddenly noticed a lost looking Kirumi. A rare sight, to say the least. And that made Kokichi curious.

Stuffing his lock picking tools into his pocket, Kokichi jumped onto Kirumi’s path, waving exuberantly, “Hey, hey Kirumi! You look a little lost, looking for something?”

Kirumi sighed like Kokichi was the last person she had wanted to see (which, to Kokichi, was a good thing) and said, “I’m just looking for someone, it’s nothing to disrupt yourself for.”

It was an incredibly suspicious statement. Looking for someone, why would Kirumi be looking for someone? Perhaps it was a secret rendezvous- in which someone planned to kill Kirumi or vice versa? But why in the middle of the day and (more importantly) who was Kirumi going to meet up with? Kokichi was starving for answers.

So just as Kirumi started to leave Kokichi alone, he swerved in front of her to interrogate her further. “You’re not planning on sharing your motive video with someone, are you?”

Kirumi, to her credit, only looked slightly annoyed by Kokichi’s second interruption and responded by saying, “No, I would never.”

She said it straight-faced, with no indication of a lie. That, however, was futile evidence, because no matter how Kokichi looked at the situation- it was suspicious. It would, after all, be no great surprise if Kirumi was just a good liar- she was the ultimate maid.

“Hmm… Y’know, Kirumi, lying is bad for your health!”

“Kokichi, I’m not lying.”

“Then who are you meeting?”

Kirumi stared at Kokichi, like she was trying to gauge his intentions (an impossible feat, he believed), before finally giving in and letting Kokichi divulge in her information, “Ryoma.”

How interesting. How odd… Kirumi meeting with Ryoma? Why would they be meeting alone? The only reason would have to do with the motive videos, which just made Kirumi’s reluctance to reveal Ryoma’s identity even _ more _suspicious…

“Why are you meeting with Ryoma?”

“I would just like to talk to him.”

“About what?”

“I’m afraid that that’s personal business you’re asking about.”

Kokichi pouted- upset, with his suspicion still rising, “You have Ryoma’s motive video, don’t you?”

It was more an accusation than a question.

Kirumi, knowing that the interrogation wouldn’t stop until she started answering his questions, finally gave in, saying, “Yes, it seems that we got each other’s motive video.”

(At Kirumi’s answer, Kokichi quietly thanked his natural ability to annoy people- in dire times, it truly was a gift.)

“Oohhhh! So I was right! You guys really are trying to trade motive videos!”

“No. As I said before, I’m not planning on exchanging my motive video with anyone- and I’m not planning on seeing my own.”

“Reallllly?”

“I don’t trust myself to see someone that I care about and not act rashly- my duty right now is to serve you and the others, and I currently cannot abandon that devotion. And though I don’t know if Ryoma has my video exactly- I do wish to give him his own, for his own sake.”

“Wooow, Kirumi! You’re so selfless! Okay… I guess you can go now…”

Kokichi hopped out of Kirumi’s way, his curiosity satisfied. Although her testimony didn’t exactly prove her innocent- it made some amount of sense. Besides, he couldn't think of any way that Ryoma would know who’s motive video Kirumi had.

With that thought, he turned back to his door and continued picking his lock.

Kokichi supposed that this ordeal could also confirm if Kirumi was to be a somewhat trusted individual. If she was telling the truth, then when he and Maki sneak into Ryoma’s room- they should see someone else’s motive video, not Ryoma’s. That would be useful information.

Oh, Kokichi just couldn’t wait for Operation Clubthorn to finally commence. It was such a good plan, and he had to admit that having an assassin on his side (though she would probably resent that wording) was really helpful. Knowing that the person you need to sneak around with won’t get caught really helps boost confidence.

And he was just so close to catching the mastermind- because even if the motive videos don’t outright say who the mastermind is, there will be hints. That he was sure of.

And so, Kokichi spent the rest of his day smiling to himself, thinking about his wonderful plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if the second scene sucks- multiple characters in the same room talking is not my strong suit, but that's probably obvious considering lots of characters didn't get to say anything (sorry Shuichi).
> 
> Important edit (12/23/19)- So, I noticed that I basically ignored an important plot-point in the beginning scene. There are no visible cameras in V3. I have now worked around that- and it is now (hopefully) plothole free. If anyone notices something like this happening again, please let me know, and I'll fix it immediately.
> 
> [My Tumblr](https://mirror-face.tumblr.com/)


	4. Chapter 2- Daily Life II- Illegal Move

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the plan is set in motion and speculation is needed. The mastermind is so close, and yet so incredibly far.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for the incredibly long delay on this chapter, but stuff happens, so yeah.
> 
> And just so you know, an important edit was made to last chapter about the cameras in the first scene. Please go back and read it, there's a scene in here that won't make any sense if you don't. 
> 
> Illegal Move- A move that either a) Moves a piece in an illegal manner, or 2) Results in an illegal position.

Kokichi was laying on the ground, limbs twisted about- his face screaming that he was in immense pain. Tenko was standing over him, clearly having had just thrown him. Hard. That was not what Maki had expected to see when she walked into the warehouse. 

She had been planning on grabbing a screwdriver for the plan. She wouldn’t need to use it until the next day, but Maki wasn’t doing anything, so she thought she might as well get it out of the way. Had she known about getting dragged into any of her crazy classmates’ shenanigans (or having to spend any more extra time around Kokichi), she would have just done it the next morning. However, it seemed that the world was, once again, out to get Maki.

She probably could’ve just left both Kokichi and Tenko there- she wasn’t exactly curious as to what they were doing, but the pained look in Kokichi’s face was too intense (and too childlike) for Maki to just _ ignore _it. And, as much as Maki hated to admit it, she would rather not have Kokichi die in such a stupid manner.

“Tenko, what are you doing?”

Tenko’s head snapped up quickly, seeming to have not noticed Maki’s original entrance. Getting out of her Neo-Aikido stance, and stepping over the writhing Kokichi, Tenko rushed over to Maki, smiling wide at the sight of a girl.

“Well, Tenko was just looking around the warehouse to find some magic supplies for Himiko. But then this-” Tenko turned around to glare at Kokichi, who was still groaning on the floor, “this _degenerate _started threatening all of the girls. He was saying things about how easily gullible they all are, and how he was going to murder all of them!”

“Oh? Was he?” Maki looked pointedly at Kokichi, but his face was once again planted into the floor.

“Don’t you worry, Maki! I’ll protect all of the girls with my Neo-Aikido! No _ degenerate _could survive a proper Neo-Aikido battle!”

“Yeah, sure.”

Suddenly looking kind of awkward at Maki’s lack of response, Tenko shuffled her feet, “I have to get back to Himiko, she could be in danger! But, I don’t know about leaving you all alone with _ him _…” She glanced at Kokichi’s laying body in disgust.

“Don’t worry, I can handle him.”

Wanting to get back to Himiko quickly, Tenko didn’t argue, and she left readily, if a bit hesitant. Leaving, she called, “If you need any help, just call! I’ll be ready to flip that degenerate again!”

Maki simply nodded in response, watching Tenko run off, magic supplies forgotten. Though she was sure that Himiko just wanted Tenko off of her back instead of actually needing supplies.

With a heavy sigh, Maki walked over to the groaning body of Kokichi. She lightly kicked him and said, “Get up.”

“Ugh, help meeeeee…”

“I doubt that you need any help to get up. It was just a flip.”

Kokichi raised his head slowly, eyes wobbly as wet, his mouth a shaky line,“Ahhhh! It hurts though! If Tenko broke my nose, I’m going to cry…”

“I honestly doubt she did.” But, still, Maki lowered her hand in offering.

“Nope, sorry! I don’t want to touch your _ bloody _hands!” And, completely ignoring Maki’s outstretched hand, Kokichi hopped up. He landed a little wobbly, but to Maki he seemed fine.

“So, now that we’re both here together, come and follow me! I wanted to show you something.”

There was no point in arguing, Maki reminded herself, “Fine. What do you want to show me?”

“Shhhh! It’s a secret!” Is all Kokichi said before skipping out of the warehouse.

And, her aspirations for a screwdriver forgotten, Maki followed him out quietly.

Glancing behind him, Kokichi beckoned her further “Come on! Hurry up, my knight!”

Maki scoffed, “Knight?”

“Uh, yeah! You’re my knight in shining armour, aren’t you? You saved me from the murderous Tenko! Oh how will I ever repay you, my knight?”

“I didn’t even rescue you. I don’t even think Tenko would’ve killed you. She doesn’t really seem like the type.”

Kokichi smiled slyly as he pranced on the paths outside the school, “Ohhh? And who are those types exactly? You would know, riiiiighttt?”

Maki sighed (she seemed to be doing that often now), she should have known that saying that would be a bad idea. Before Maki could respond though, Kokichi changed the subject.

“Soooo, anything to report? I mean, you don’t have to wait until midnight when I’m right here!”

“Isn’t it suspicious that we’re just talking to each other casually? Aren’t we supposed to _ not _know each other?”

They were now outside, in the open. And though nobody seemed to be around, you could never really know.

“Eh. It’s not like us talking will clue anyone into anything. And besides, no one’s around to even notice us!”

“How do you expect to be able to defeat the mastermind if you’re acting this idiotic? If we’re not careful enough, people will start getting suspicious of me- and that’s not supposed to happen, right?” Maki said she quickened her strides to catch up with Kokichi’s skipping.

“I mean, I don’t really blame them, you are a pretty suspicious person… Maybe you should work on that, get more friendly with people!”

Maki just ignored him.

Finally, Kokichi stopped, near the area where the manhole (and fake escape route) was.

“Why are we here?” Maki asked, narrowing her eyes in suspicion, “If this is stupid, I’ll kill you.”

Kokichi just laughed off her threat and shook his head. They both entered the room, and Kokichi instantly ran to the far left of the room- jumping up and down and pointing to a few vines.

“C’mon, c’mon! Just move them already, my great discovery is on this wall!”

Maki walked closer to the wall and, being taller than Kokichi, was easily able to push aside the drapes of vines. This revealed the words ‘twin b’.

“‘Twin b?’ What’s that supposed to mean?” She looked over to Kokichi for answers.

“I don’t know!” Kokichi shouted (though it wasn’t as loud as Maki thought it would be, thankfully). He had a large grin on his- like he’d just found a large stash of candy or had just solved a particularly difficult puzzle. 

“If you haven’t figured anything out yet, then why do you look so happy?”

“Just because I don’t know what the words mean doesn’t mean that I haven’t figured something out!” He called as he peered down the open manhole, having had been wandering throughout the room as Maki inspected the mysterious words that had been written on the walls.

“Then what did you figure out?”

“Oh my god, Maki! Why don’t you just think on your own for once? Stop using me as a tool! Solve your own problems!”

“Does it have to do with ‘horse a’?”

Kokichi turned his head back to look at her in what she would assume to be a muted surprise. He quickly turned back to the manhole, however, and said, “Yep-yep! Wooooow Maki! I can’t believe you got it!”

Maki scoffed, “I’d be surprised if anyone didn’t. They’re both mysterious writings that go in the order of noun then letter.”

“I mean, I didn’t know you were that smart Maki! In all reality, you act like an idiot! But maybe that’s just a coverup… Wow Maki, you really are a great assassin!”

Maki just sighed again and ignored the insult, “So what do you think it means?”

“Hmm?” His head tilted slightly, though he didn’t look back to Maki again. “Why would you think that it means anything?”

“Because you made me follow you here.”

Kokichi giggled quietly to himself and finally spun around completely- facing Maki with a large grin. “But Maki, what if that’s not why I asked you here? I never told you _ why _ I had you follow me here, did I?”

“Don’t be an idiot. There’s nothing else here.”

Kokichi winked, “Heh, I guess you’re getting better at noticing my lies, huh? Well, yeah, you’re right! Of course I don’t know everything, but I _ do _ have a few theories, which I’ll keep close to my chest for now!”

Maki didn’t even bother to argue, she could see that Kokichi wasn’t going to tell her anything.

“Buuuuut, I would like to ask you a question,” Kokichi paused for a second, “actually, maybe two.”

Sighing, Maki flatly responded, “What?”

“Soooo, who do you think wrote these weird messages?”

“Probably the mastermind.”

“Not Monokuma or the Monokubs?”

“They don’t have fingers- I don’t see how they could write anything.”

“Mhmm! Good answers! You’re totally right, you’re really pushing my suspension of disbelief here! But, anyways, my next question is- what do you think this means?”

“Well, I can’t tell by just looking at it, but it’s probably some kind of fake hint or something for getting out of. Similar to the escape route down the manhole.”

“So you’re saying that it’s just a red herring?”

“Essentially, yes.”

“Pft! Figures that the assassin would take everything at face value. By making these hints so obvious, it makes them obvious red herrings- meaning that’s what they want 

you to think! That proves that they’re red herrings of being red herrings, meaning that they’re actual clues!”

“I think you’re digging too deep here.”

“I’m probably not digging deep enough.”

There was a short silence until Maki just sighed and relented, “Fine, stick with your own idiotic thoughts. Was this all you wanted to show me?”

Kokichi snuck one last small glance at the manhole, before moving his eyes to look solely at Maki and said, grinning widely, “Yep, that’s it for now! I just wanted to call this to your attention- y’know, just in case you find any clue that might be related to this. Because _ you _may be an idiot, but I am a super-genius, an awesomely intelligent leader, meaning that I don’t fall for stupid traps and I expect you to report anything that may relate to this to me. Understand, huh?”

Maki nodded her head reluctantly, once again regretting that the worst person possible was the one blackmailing her.

“Good, good, good! I’m glad we’re on the same page. Now shoo! I have things to do! I’ll see you tomorrow though, we don’t have to meet tonight! Unless you think you’ll miss me…”

“No, I’m fine.” Maki was definitely sure about that.

And so they seperated without another word, Maki trying to get away from Kokichi as fast as possible. 

* * *

Kokichi was running on only two hours of sleep, jittery with anxiety and paranoia. Wandering thoughts of ‘what-ifs’ and such. Will his plan fail or work? Hopefully it would work, he’d spent way too many hours brushing up on it for it to just fail. Of course, for a plan that Kokichi was putting so much confidence in, it was pretty easy to unravel. Thinking that he held any type of power over the mastermind would be a grave mistake.

If Kokichi’s theory about the hidden cameras were correct, then the mastermind did know about his plan (but thanks to his being smart, they didn’t know the actual goal of the plan). He was mostly depending on outside factors for his plan to work. Unreliable, outside factors. It made Kokichi nervous in multiple ways, it’s not exactly a good sign for your most reliable person is an evil assassin.

Most of the things Kokichi was depending on was stuff like how many motives the mastermind had in stock, or how much entertainment the mastermind (and maybe others) were planning to derive from the killing game. And, as much as Kokichi refused to admit it, the thought that his life and everyone else’s was up to a few external factors made him nervous. So, incredibly nervous.

Where there actually hidden cameras, or was it all a lie? It was the most probable theory, the Monokubs and Monokuma would be too noticeable to successfully spy on everyone, especially when everyone would be paranoid. And it would be really stupid if the mastermind wasn’t keeping tabs on everyone at every time. But if the hidden camera theory was correct, then how were the cameras kept hidden and where would they be?

Then that all led to the question of if the mastermind knew about the plan, what were they going to do about it.

It was way too much for Kokichi’s head, and he felt that it was going to explode at any second. Groaning, he checked his Monopad for the time. He was twenty minutes late to breakfast. Good, not showing up only a few hours before his awesome master plan would only make him more suspicious. He’d talk to Maki once she was done having breakfast. Finalizing his plans, even flimsy ones, was always a necessity. 

Maybe he could go now, he was getting hungry, and stopping by for just a small breakfast wouldn’t hurt…

Kokichi shook his head quickly, trying to shake off all possible thoughts and aspirations for food. He might end up getting cornered and questioned, or maybe even tied up. Kokichi was preeeeety sure that Kaito would do something like that. That meant that not only could he not go to breakfast, but he’ll have to sneak around whenever he went outside. The life of a villain was hard.

Once again, Kokichi checked his Monopad. Ten minutes had passed, he wouldn’t be able to make it to breakfast anyway. He was already starting to miss Kirumi’s cooking...

Which reminded him… That odd interaction that Kokichi had had the day before, Kirumi had been planning on meeting Ryoma. Due to him being absent at breakfast, he wasn’t able to observe their behavior, but he could always just ask Maki if they were acting weird. Depending too much on the assassin was a bad thing, but having a second pair of eyes (especially eyes as skillful as Maki’s) and not using them would be pretty foolish. 

That was just another reason to go and talk to Maki.

Sighing (wasn’t that more of Maki’s thing?), Kokichi made his way out of his room. He’d probably have to wander around a bit to find Maki, seeing as any sort of interaction with anyone else would probably result in him getting tackled.

And, finally, Kokichi snuck out the hall, ready to go assassin hunting.

* * *

Maki was in the warehouse. An unexpected place, considering that she’d been there the day before (and that Kokichi couldn’t see any good reason for her to be hanging around there). He had searched around five rooms before the warehouse, and he was starting to get tired, especially since he was also skirting around everyone.

“Heeeey, Maki!”

Maki turned her head quickly, stance tense and eyes radiating annoyance. Once she realized that it was Kokichi calling to her, the tension in her shoulders relaxed- though she still glared at him.

“What do you want?”

Grinning widely, Kokichi avoided her question easily, “What are you doing here?”

Maki’s gaze sharpened (she was so easy to frustrate) before turning her back to him, focusing solely on the selves that she was looking at before.

“Awwwww, c’mon Maki! Tell me! Tell me! Now I want to know!”

“Maybe I would tell me if you weren’t such an annoying brat.”

It seemed that simply annoying her wouldn’t work. He’d hoped it would help him out a little, but she seemed to be turning immune. Kokichi supposed he’d just have to do it the hard way. 

And so, Kokichi strained his neck and looked above Maki’s arms. 

“Screwdrivers?” 

Weird.

Turning her head to, once again, glare at him, Maki responded by saying, “They’re for the plan, remember? You couldn’t have forgotten something so simple.”

The fact that Kokichi was way too stressed about all of the other super, incredibly important parts of the plan that he forgot something as simple as a screwdriver was forgotten went unsaid. He refused to admit to that.

“Oooohhhh, that! I thought you already grabbed it a while ago.”

“Well, I would’ve been able to grab a screwdriver yesterday if I wasn’t interrupted by your stupid antics. I tried to come back after we talked, but Tenko was back and I didn’t want her asking any unnecessary questions.”

Being reminded of that particular incident made Kokichi’s back ache. Who would’ve thought that Tenko would react so badly just because of just a few threats…

“So,” Maki sighed, as if already starting to regret asking, “what do you want?”

Once again, a grin crept up Kokichi’s face, and Maki’s eyes narrowed in return. “Oh, just a debriefing of the plan. Y’know, the _ obvious _stuff.”

“Wipe that stupid smile off your face before someone thinks that you’re planning on blowing up the school.”

Kokichi just ignored her, “Well, do you want to hear my awesome plan or not?”

“It’s not like I have a choice.”

“Weeellll, you kinda do… if you want to be feared and suspected and attacked, that is.”

“Just shut up and tell me the plan.”

“Wait, which one do I do first?”

* * *

Maki was surprised by the amount of people that ended up coming to Kokichi’s ‘Gardening Club’. 

“Are they trapped in Gonta’s lab?” She asked Kokichi, who ran over to where she was standing by the front of the dorm’s front door. 

“Yep! Locked up tight! I even used the screwdriver that you got to attach it to the door…”

“And you’re sure Gonta won’t try to knock the door down?” Honestly, having such a strong, easily manipulative guy is both unlucky and lucky. Sometimes having such a person could be useful and a constant worry.

“I’m suuuuper sure! He’s too much of an idiot to see that I’ve tricked him! No matter whatever anyone says, he’ll stick by my side no matter what, because he’s my super pal!”

Maki ignored the stupid name,“How many people are there?”

“Everyone except for… Kirumi, Ryoma, and Miu!”

“Kirumi and Ryoma aren’t there?” That’s bad, especially if Kirumi wasn’t trapped in Gonta’s lab- she would most likely be cleaning the rooms. Miu didn’t really matter overall, since she’d be more likely in her research lab than anywhere else. And Ryoma, well, he was kind of a wildcard (another problem).

Catching onto Maki’s train of thought, Kokichi simply laughed off her worries, “Don’t worry, I looked around for where they are, they’re just talking in the cafeteria- though it seems that they’ll be a while.” And then he walked off, taking out his lock picks and heading over to one of the dormitory doors. 

Shuichi Saihara’s room. Though that didn’t exactly matter, the rooms (except for the Kubz Pads) would all be the same anyways.

But, what had Kokichi meant by ‘they’ll be a while’? Was he offhandedly insinuating that one (or both) of them were dead? It seemed like the type of thing a little brat like Kokichi would do, finding a dead body and not mentioning it. It wasn’t like Maki particularly cared if anyone where to die or not, but Kokichi lying about it would raise even more suspicions about him. It would be hard to trust him after that.

(The fact that she doesn’t care about the wellbeing of her classmates over herself was ignored.)

Of course, Maki was already wary of Kokichi, she wasn’t an idiot. He was untrustworthy- that was a fact. But she would at least like limits as to how far that trustworthiness would go.

Kokichi turned away from Shuichi’s door, bowing over-dramatically and gesturing to the rooms entrance before skipping over to the next room. Maki entered silently.

Shuichi’s room was incredibly plain- nothing of value, nothing of interest. And his Kubz Pad sat on his empty table, right in the middle of his room.

Snatching the Pad, Maki looked around the detective’s room for anything suspicious. Since she was there, she might as well make sure that she wasn’t entering the mastermind’s room. But it seemed that other than a bed, table, and a closet filled with replacement clothes, Shuichi’s room was simply empty.

Maki turned on the Kubz Pad- checking to see which motive Shuichi got.

“This is the motive of Shuichi Saihara, the ultimate detective!”

He’d gotten his own. How odd… did that mean that someone else had gotten their own as well? The fact that Shuichi got his own motive video made him partly suspicious. But so would the other person with their own. If there were doubles of one video, then Shuichi could have had two people get the same video and then just kept his own, then claim to have someone else’s.

Of course, that plan was needlessly complicated, but it didn’t seem unlikely when considering the entire killing game. There was always a chance…

“Heeeey, hurry up, Knight! I’ve already unlocked some of the other dorms. Jeez, you’re such a slowpoke!”

What an annoying brat.

Maki walked out the door, not giving Shuichi’s room another glance back. “Here.” She muttered as she passed Kokichi the Kubz Pad (just as they’d discussed only a few hours previous).

“Yay, buried treasure!” Kokichi snatched it out of her hands eagerly, not even asking Maki who’s it was before checking the name himself. Of course he wouldn’t trust her.

Maki just sighed and moved on to one of the unlocked dorms. Kokichi had unlocked them randomly, she noted as she tried to open Korekiyo’s door. She tried another one- Ryoma’s- which was unlocked.

That was how it went for a whole hour- entering and exiting rooms. In and out. Out then in. It could be considered dull, if not for the fact that they were discovering useful information. 

Once she left the final room (Tsumugi’s), Maki was finally approached by Kokichi, who snatched the Kubz Pad from her hands. And, smiling, he asked, “Hmmm… So Tsumugi got Himiko’s, right?”

“Yeah.” Maki guessed it made sense that Kokichi would know that. He seemed to be checking the motive videos right after her.

Despite her conformation, Kokichi still watched the opening to the motive video. He nodded to himself, before spinning around (in an over-the-top manner) and facing Maki, grinning widely. 

“Mission complete!”

“So we’re done?”

“Yep!” He said, before rifling through his pockets and taking out a piece of paper and pen. “And I’ve wrote everything down!” He shoved it in Maki’s face.

It read:

**Shuichi Saihara → Shuichi Saihara**

**Korekiyo Shinguji → Tenko Chabashira**

**Ryoma Hoshi → Kirumi Tojo**

**Himiko Yumeno → Kiibo**

**Gonta Gokuhara → Angie Yonaga**

**Tenko Chabashira → Miu Iruma**

**Kiibo → Korekiyo Shinguji**

**Kirumi Tojo → Ryoma Hoshi**

**Kaito Mamota → Kaito Mamota**

**Angie Yonaga → Tsumugi Shirogane**

**Miu Iruma → Gonta Gokuhara**

**Tsumugi Shirogane → Himiko Yumeno**

Maki looked up from the list, “What’s the point in writing this down, we both already know who has whose motive video?”

Kokichi, still grinning from ear to ear, simply said, “In case we forget.”

“In case we forget?”

“What are you, a parrot? Jeez, don’t worry- there’s no need to question your great and amazing chess master, my knight!”

Maki rolled her eyes, but decided that they didn’t have enough time to waste arguing about such pointless things. 

Noticing Maki’s retreating silence, Kokichi continued, “Well, we should get going, shouldn’t we? Yay, it’s time to watch those _ awesome _videos!”

“What about the others?”

“Eh, they can wait a little longer, can’t they? And anyways, the sooner we do this, the sooner we find the mastermind.”

“Why don’t we just split up? You could open the door, and I can take the motives to my lab.”

Kokichi gave her a look of confusion (though genuine or mocking, she couldn’t exactly tell), “Like hell I’m leaving my precious motive videos with an evil stabby-stabby assassin girl!” He stuck out his tongue at her. What an annoying brat. “So, let’s go! I’ll deal with everything after, so hurry up before Kirumi or Ryoma or someone else sees us!”

Just wanting Kokichi to shut up his whining was enough motivation for Maki to just go through with his plan. She didn’t really care what happened to the others anyways. It was all just self preservation (or that’s what she kept telling herself). It was the price she paid for her terrible luck.

And so, sighing, she followed Kokichi, twirling around as he walked, Kubz Pads bundled in his hands. Acting like a child as they walked over to her research lab, ready to watch some videos.

* * *

“Kiibo’s the most suspicious.”

“Really? I would think that Kirumi is the most suspicious, seeing as she happens to be a wealthy leader with a hold over the law.”

“Yeah, yeah, sure that’s shocking and all, but think about it this way. Why would the mastermind reveal a large secret that they already know to themselves? Why threaten an entire country just to get themselves to do something that they won’t do?”

“Obviously to make themselves not suspicious. The motives were mixed up right? So if someone were to see that she had such a large motive, their pity would override their suspicion.”

“But it makes her stand out too much, right? Wouldn’t the mastermind try to blend into the crowd and not be obvious?”

“Says the idiot accusing the robot.”

“But, robot or not, his motive was preeeeety plain, huh? Professor Lidabashi, the only guy that Kiibo has ever talked about, what a non-standouty motive! It’s like he was afraid that adding in a new character to his backstory would make him suspicious, right?”

Maki looked away, pouting slightly, “I guess that makes some sort of sense, but it’s stupid to just flat-out accuse Kiibo of being the mastermind without any actual proof.”

“Hmmph!” Kokichi plopped down on the floor, arms crossed, “I never said anything about accusing him, just that he was suspicious.”

“Well, who else is on your suspect list?”

“Hmmm… Let’s see… Kiibo!”

“Seriously?”

“Well yeah! At least for now…”

“Is there really no one else?”

“Nope!”

‘You’ was something that Kokichi decided not to say, lest Maki start throwing a hissy fit about it. He still barely trusted her (they had only been in a partnership for around three days), and Kokichi knew that Maki didn’t trust him either. She didn’t deserve it (and she probably never will).

“What about Angie?” Maki interrupted his thoughts.

“Angie? Why?” Yeah, sure, she didn’t seem all too right in the head, but overall she seemed pretty harmless.

“Earlier yesterday, when you left with Gonta, she not-so-subtly threatened me. Is seemed that she wanted everyone to come to the magic show that she got Himiko to host.”

“Oh, reeeaaallly?” How interesting. Of course, that didn’t exactly seem ‘mastermind-like’, just suspicious. “Is that all though? Possibility planning a murder is different than being the mastermind, y’know!”

“Yes, Kokichi, I know.” Maki grumbled, “But the fact that she also ‘brainwashed’ Himiko, and is obviously planning to indoctrinate everyone here into her religion, makes me see her as a possible suspect.”

“Wow, Maki, is that sarcasm I hear? I never knew that you could express emotions other than bloodlust and annoyance! Congrats!”

Maki sighed deeply, ignoring that jab, “So, is she suspicious or not?”

Kokichi waved his hands in clear dismissal, “Yeah, yeah, super suspicious. She’s toootally the mastermind!”

“Can’t you take this more seriously? Kiibo probably isn’t the mastermind.”

“Well, he’s a prime suspect, that’s for sure.”

“You need other suspects for there to be a prime one.”

“Nah!”

“Well at least think about it. Having tunnel vision in a situation like this is just idiotic.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it. But you seem to keep forgetting that _ I’m _the chessmaster here. I make the decisions, and I make the plans- and I say we spy on the robot!”

“Not Angie?”

“Nope, not the cultist!”

Maki turned her head away from Kokichi, looking to the Kubz Pads, thrown haphazardly into a pile. “Fine, have it your way. But I’m still planning on watching everyone, _ you _can waste your time on the stupid robot.”

There was an empty silence for a while, both thinking. Kokichi, of course, was the one to break that silence. “C’mon, let’s watch them again!”

Maki turned back to Kokichi, a swirl of both confusion and annoyance in her eyes, “Seriously?”

“Yep! It’s always best to analyze your evidence more than once.”

“I’m sure that we’ve seen all that we possibly can.”

“Nnnnope!”

“It honestly just feels like a waste of time. And don’t you still have to let everyone go?”

“Eh, Gonta’ll let them all out eventually. And anyways, we’ve both seen each motive video once, right?” Well, assuming that Maki hadn’t watched his more than once. “So one more time won’t hurt, riiight?”

Maki scoffed, “I haven’t even watched your motive video yet.”

“You haven’t even watched my motive video?”

“Yeah, I didn’t think it would be important. I haven’t even watched my own.”

Kokichi sighed- seriously? She didn’t even do the bare minimum of research on him? There weren’t many ways to get information on him, but one was right in front of her face (in her lab, which she spent more time in than her actual room)! Kokichi assumed that assassins didn’t really care who they worked for, but this was ridiculous. Of course, this may benefit him- if Kokichi still wanted to keep up the ‘big, evil leader facade’. The thing was, Maki didn’t really seem to be falling for it and didn’t see him as much of a threat other than the blackmail thing. So there was no real point in keeping up that lie, and it _ would _be useful for a little bit of trust to come from her (despite the fact that Kokichi didn’t trust Maki at all). 

“Well I, the brilliant Kokichi Oma, give you full permission to watch my motive video!”

“Just because you gave me permission, doesn’t mean I’m going to watch your motive.”

Kokichi smirked, “And you seem to keep forgetting that you’re being blackmailed.”

Maki glared, red eyes illuminated in the low lighting of the room, “And you seem to keep forgetting that I could kill you at any time.”

And suddenly, it seemed as though Kokichi’s heart had frozen- that his blood had just refused to pump- in that small moment. Maki’s glare seemed to stab right through him, saying, ‘I won’t hesitate to kill you’.

Then, the feeling was gone, and Maki simply sighed, “Fine, I’ll do it later tonight.” Before turning away, ready to start rewatching the videos. 

Kokichi blinked. Once, then twice. For the first time realizing the many times that Maki could’ve possibly killed him. On the first night that he had confronted her, and the day before at the courtyard were moments that Maki couldn’t have killed him without it being obvious (especially since Maki was such a bad liar). But all the other times that Kokichi had been with her, Maki could’ve simply snapped his neck. Killed him in so many different ways.

God, he was such an idiot! Maki had been so passive, that sometimes he forgot that this was a cold blooded murderer that he was thinking about. One that hated his guts. He wasn’t careful enough- even in the current moment, Kokichi was stuck in a room (full of weapons) with Maki. He’d have to be more careful, always be on the defensive- ready for any attack. Always ready to run.

Because this was the ultimate assassin- a standoffish idiot that hated him to the tenth degree.

Kokichi ended up joining Maki to watch the Kubz Pads again (because research was still research), but he kept a close eye on Maki.

And that’s how Kokichi and Maki spent the rest of their night- rewatching the motive videos that they had collected, trying to find any clue of who the mastermind could be. Until Kokichi’s mind- a mess of nerves- finally (accidentally) stumbled off to sleep.

Maki let him sleep there for the night. (All the while wondering why she hadn’t killed him already.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [My Tumblr](https://mirror-face.tumblr.com/)


	5. Chapter 2- Daily Life III- Ply

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day one with no motive, and no Monokuma in sight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, sorry this took so long. 
> 
> Ply- a ply is one turn taken by one of the players

Kokichi woke up from his dreamless sleep, blinking tiredness from his eyes. He groaned, his back stiff, like he’d slept on a floor. Where was he anyways? 

Kokichi looked around, still confused from sleep (it’d been a while since he’d slept for more than three hours). His eyes widened a bit once he realized that he was on the floor, curled into himself. But not just any floor- the floor to the ultimate assassin’s lab. Maki’s lab.

Was he dead? And, just to make sure, he pinched himself hard on his arm. Nope- he felt that for sure.

Kokichi stumbled to his feet, dazed. Everything looked the same as the night before, other than the motive video pile, which had been moved over to a table next to a few guns. Rubbing his eyes, Kokichi went over to the pile and counted them. All of them (including his, excluding Maki’s- considering it was in his room) were there. 

Kokichi stared at the pile for a moment before spinning around. Maki wasn’t there. What was the time? He took out his Monopad, checking the time. Eight a.m- he’d missed breakfast again. Sighing, he waltzed around the room, just wandering in a circle- thinking deeply. 

He couldn’t believe that he’d fallen asleep in the same room as a killer! Worse even- he’d fallen asleep inside of a killer’s lair. How was he even alive? Kokichi knew that Maki wanted his head, why wouldn’t she. He was the chain dragging her down, all she needed to do was clip him off. Maybe the last few times were flukes, Maki wasn’t the smartest after all, but the most recent was weird. There’s no way she couldn’t have killed him the night (or early morning) before- she had to have seen the opportunity. She was an assassin for god’s sake, it’s her job!

Kokichi groaned to himself. The whole situation was just too confusing, and too threatening. His life was on the line here. He couldn’t help but feel like he was missing an important part of the puzzle. Not knowing something (something important) bothered him. A lot. Too much.

The thought of death being so close intimidated him somewhat, but he was going to have to die at one point- he just had to make sure that it mattered. 

Kokichi sighed, and he finally stopped wandering in circles. This was why he hadn’t been planning on working with anyone. Too many variables. Especially with a wild card like Maki, who could snap his neck at any moment. He guessed just had to come up with a plan. If he was going to die, then he might as well write down a few important ideas or clues down and put it in his room (a place that would probably be checked if he were to die). He was sure he could find a notebook in the warehouse…

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the door opening. His head turned back to look at who was entering. It was Maki, how unsurprising.

Kokichi let out a huff of air, annoyed. Why did she have to come back as soon as he made a breakthrough? He twisted the rest of his body around to face the door, as soon as he faced her Maki said, “Finally, you’re up.”

Kokichi pouted, crossing his arms, “Well maybe if you woke me up, all would’ve been well, wouldn’t it?”

Maki rolled her eyes but ignored his pointed question. “Everyone really hates you right now. Kaito’s been knocking on your door for around an hour now, and the idiot refuses to give up.”

Kokichi blinked, somewhat surprised. “Is he _ that _upset? Jeez he must have worse anger issues than I thought. It was just flowers.”

“It took them all hours to get out of Gonta’s lab- they were only able to convince him to let them go at around 3:00 pm, and then they had to explain to Gonta from behind the door how to open the slide lock. Everyone’s exhausted and they’ve all noticed their missing Kubz Pads.”

“And thirsting for my blood…?”

“Yes.”

Kokichi shifted his feet nervously, suddenly afraid of going outside (though it wasn’t like he was any safer inside a room full of weapons). Before noticing something in one of Maki’s hands. An apple?

Maki, noticing the odd look Kokichi was sending her, sighed and said, “It’s breakfast.”

“Breakfast?” And oddly kind gesture from Maki, instantly making it suspicious.

Maki looked away, playing with her hair, “Yeah. Honestly, I don’t know what you’ve been eating lately, and I don’t want to have to deal with a dead body in my lab.”

Still suspicious- Maki was a terrible liar.

“And what makes you think I’d want to eat food given by you? Maybe you poisoned it, huh?” It was a plausible theory.

Maki gave him a flat stare, though a glare was starting to break through. “Didn’t you hear what I just said? And anyways, how would I poison an apple without you noticing?”

“Injection?”

“With what needle?”

“One from the warehouse, obviously!”

“Where would I get the poison?”

“Uhhh… From the warehouse…?”

Maki glared. “Really?”

Kokichi simply huffed and crossed his arms, turning away from her, “I’m not very hungry anyways.”

But at that exact moment, Kokichi’s stomach made a large rumble, filling the quietness of the room.

Maki sighed and walked over to where Kokichi stood, Kokichi backed away slightly, scared of what she might do, but she paid his action no mind and simply shoved the apple in his hands. “Just eat it, for god’s sake.”

Kokichi stared at the apple for a few seconds, contemplating his choices. He _ was _hungry, incredibly so (he hadn’t eaten at all the day before). But was that worth risking his life? Eating this apple, whether it was poison or not, would be giving up- he would be playing into the hands of the assassin. Kokichi still didn’t know why Maki was doing this, but he knew that it had to be some kind of powermove. The knight disrupting the king’s court.

But what if it was a showing of companionship?

Just in case, he took a bite- throwing his previous plan out the window. He did pride himself in his improvisation skills. 

Maki’s eyes softened, and the apple tasted sweet in his mouth, juice trickling down his dry throat. She looked like she wanted to say something, but Kokichi spoke up first- rushing to the door. 

“Sorry Maki, but I can’t exactly sit around doing nothing! I’ve got some _ amazing _plans brewing around in my head! Hopefully no one kills me while I’m out there!” And he skipped out the door before Maki could even respond.

And, deciding to favor speed over stealth, Kokichi sprinted off to the inventor’s lab, hoping not to get caught and yelled at by anyone.

He stopped running only a minute in.

The hallway was empty, though. There was no person in sight, the school almost seemed abandoned with how little noise there was. Usually there would be at least someone, usually Kaito or Angie, just wandering around. However, there was no one.

It almost made Kokichi feel like the whole thing was some giant trap. Meant to capture him in some way. Of course, such a silly thought was ushered out of Kokichi’s head, but the atmosphere was still scary.

Kokichi slowed his run to a leisurely walk. No need to draw attention to no one. Running made him seem desperate.

Kokichi took the quiet time to not think. Thinking was a thing that he did too often nowadays. And sometimes, doing one thing over and over could be boring. So, as Kokichi walked to Miu’s lab, his mind was numb as he finished eating his apple (he threw the core on the grass once he got outside)

However, standing in front of Miu’s lab, Kokichi realized that he should have maybe thought through his (non)plan just a little bit more. He didn’t exactly have any designs to give to Miu, and he didn’t exactly trust her when it came to designing her inventions. 

Kokichi bounced on his feet, trying to think of what to do. He needed a way to stop those pesky hidden cameras (if they existed) from eavesdropping on him and Maki. How though…?

Maybe he could get something that could cancel all types of electronics? There could be some microphones around, just waiting to overhear something important. Maybe he could get his own cameras made too… The good ones, of course. He wasn’t so crunched for time that he had to use _ disposable cameras _, that just wouldn’t work. One that could take video would be useful, and easy to hide.

Kokichi grinned to himself. He really was a genius at improv! 

But wouldn’t he need to hijack all the cameras before asking for his own secret cameras? There would be no point if the mastermind knew all about them. Yeah, he had to do it all in moderation. Be careful about it. He had time to do everything right.

(But that was a lie, anyone could kill at any moment. Maki, himself, any of his classmates could die at any moment and everything could be ruined. Everything could fall apart so easily.)

“Heeeeey, Miu!” Kokichi pushed open the doors to the inventor’s lab, ready to announce his awesome pitch.

Only to find that asleep, snoring loudly on a messy table. 

Seriously?

“Oohhhhhh Miu, get the fuck up you nasty pig!” Insults would be the only way to get this lady to do anything. But that was fine, he liked getting creative.

“Ugh…” Miu groaned, face rolling over to face her left. “Agh…”

“C’mon, get up! I have stuff to do today!” That wasn’t exactly the truth, but he really didn’t want to spend his whole day watching Miu sleep- he didn’t want to know what she dreamed about.

“Ahhhh… huh?” Finally, at the sound of Kokichi’s yelling, Miu woke up- confused. Drool ran down her chin.

“Agh… What’re you doing here, you little shit?”

“Heh heh heh, I just need a little help from my favorite little pig!”

“Eeeeh! P-pig…? H-how dare you insult such a golden brained genius!” Well, she was fully awake.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, do your little act. We aaaaalll get it, you’re horny as hell! So, are you going to help me now?”

Miu wiped the drool from her face, her timid act fading. “Eh, why would I help you?”

“Because you’re a piece of fuck-garbage and I’m going to help get us out of here.”

“Eeeeeeehhhh! F-fine… let me look at what you have… jeez…”

‘Look’? 

Kokichi froze. Oh god damnit, he hadn’t brought (or even thought of making) any concept pictures or blueprints. What did he even want the inventions to look like? He hadn’t really thought about it. It would’ve been easier if he could trust Miu with designs, but it would probably turn out to be overtly sexual- so that was out.

So what was he supposed to do. Improvise, he supposed.

“Uhhh… well, I don’t exactly have any prints with me at the moment, buuuuut I have an idea!”

“Hmph. You don’t even have anything to show me?”

“Just shut up and let me talk.”

“Eeeeeeh!”

“I just want something small, able to cancel all electrical devices in the room by simply pressing it to a wall and flicking a switch.”

“What d’ya need that shit for? It’s with some weird kink or-“

“What do you _ think _it is, Miu?”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it. Going to save yourself ain’t ya?”

“Perhaps. Oh, and make sure that my little invention is hard to see.”

“'_Your’ _? Don’t you mean my invention, you little shit?”

“Yep, that’s what I said! So, you going to design this thing or what? Oh, and make sure that it’s appropriate in a school environment!”

“Yeah yeah…” Miu muttered as she rifled through her unorganized table, pushing aside inventions and blueprints of all types until she found some graph paper. She laid it out in front of her and started scratching at it with a pencil.

“Sooo, you seem tired.”

Miu glanced up at Kokichi, deep bags under her eyes prominent.

“Yeah, I was up all night fucking making shit. Unlike everyone else that wasted their time fuckin’ gardening.”Miu fiddled with the end of her paper as the pencil scratched at it. “But yeah, everyone’s tired as hell. Even if they have fuck all reason to. Have you seen the hallway? It’s like a fuckin’ ghost town.”

“Ooohhh, was that why the hallways were so empty? I thought someone was going to murder me or something!”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if someone wanted your bitch-ass dead.”

Before Kokichi could respond, Miu shoved the paper in his face.

Small, check. It would stick to the wall… good… And an easily pressable button. Good!

Kokichi was surprised that it actually stuck to his terms. Despite his distaste for Miu, he could admit that he appreciated her trying. Maybe she would be pretty useful in serious situations.

“Welp, it seems that you’ve got this stuff under control! I’ll check back up on you in a few days.” And, as he started to turn around and leave the inventor’s lab, Miu grabbed his wrist.

“But, uh, if I make this and any other shit you want, you’ll help me get out of here alive, right? You’ll make sure I live, yeah?” Her fingers trembled as they grasped his arm.

Of course Miu wasn’t doing all of this to save everyone. Just herself. She didn’t care what happened to anyone else. Only herself.

He didn’t have a choice but to agree.

“Yeeeep, of course!” Kokichi grinned widely.

“T-that better not be a fucking lie.”

“Not today!” 

And he spun around, his wrist slipping out of her sweaty hand, bounding towards the door.

* * *

Maki didn’t really know what to do. Currently, she was wandering around the school, trying to figure out her thoughts.

Breakfast had been horrible. Not only was everyone exhausted, but they were (rightfully) pinning the blame on Kokichi, meaning that it would be harder for him to even walk around, and that they couldn’t pull another stunt like that again without outside help. And then Kokichi accused her of trying to poison him. That’s what she got for worrying about him starving to death. What an asshole…

At least no one was suspicious of her absence the night before, though they were frustrated that she had skipped out on their ‘torture’. Everyone else seemed to be in their rooms as well, resting probably. Maki wouldn’t be surprised.

After a while of wandering the empty halls, Maki found herself in the basement area, in front of the library. She’d only been there twice before, both not exactly happy memories. She didn’t exactly know why her feet had brought her there, but a library was a good enough place to sit down and organize her thoughts, so she supposed that she couldn’t complain. Maki sighed, releasing the tension of her thoughts from her shoulders as she exhaled. She did have a lot to think about.

Maki opened the door slowly (out of habit), but instead of the empty library that she had expected, she was greeted with the sight of the robot, Kiibo. Their top suspect when it came to the mastermind’s identity (or, well, Kokichi’s top suspect). What a coincidence that he was in the room, alone, that just happened to have a secret door in it. 

Although, suspecting Kiibo based on mere coincidences and disconnected theories was exactly what Maki had been upset at Kokichi for. She had to keep her mind open. Angie was still suspicious anyways.

Kiibo watched her standing in the doorway nervously. He had been facing one of the book cases before, presumably inspecting the books, but had turned around once he’d heard the door slide open. “A-ah, hello Maki.”

Maki (not wanting to have a conversation, but remembering what Kokichi said about being friendly) reluctantly nodded silently to him in acknowledgment before leading herself to a random bookshelf. She could hear Kiibo stutter a bit, probably not expecting to be almost completely ignored, before turning back to his own bookshelf.

An uncomfortable silence filled the room as they both looked at the books. Maki, getting tired of just standing there, grabbed a random book and sat at a nearby table. It wasn’t like she was planning on reading anyways, but she at least needed to look like she was doing something. And so, staring blankly at a random page, Maki tried to ignore the robot a few feet away and organize her thoughts.

Kokichi’s wariness and hostility wasn’t exactly surprising (she would probably be more surprised if Kokichi was perfectly fine being near a murderer), but it was becoming difficult. If Kokichi really did want to work together with her, he had to trust her. Of course, Maki couldn’t even trust him herself. She couldn’t when he refused to tell her _ anything _. 

He was such an insolent child.

He always would run off, insisting that he had a plan. He has ideas that he never tells her, and he always just brushes off her threats. Maybe his Kubz Pad would give some sort of hint? It was a stupid idea, but Kokichi had insited on her watching it, so-

“Uh Maki?” A voice interrupted her thoughts. Kiibo’s, of course.

Maki turned her head up from the book she had been pretending to read. Kiibo was holding several books (of various colors) put up in a pile.

“What?”

“A-are you okay? You’ve been glaring at the first page of your book for nearly five minutes now.”

Suddenly noticing that she had, in fact, been staring at the first page for a while now. “So?”

“Well, I was just wondering if you were having trouble reading the book. You may not be able to read English.”

Maki blinked at the page, realizing that it was, indeed, in English. She could read English (she knew multiple languages due to her line of work), but saying that she could understand the language would make her lose her excuse.

“Yeah, I can’t really understand it.”

“In that case, I could translate it for you if you want.”

“You can read this?”

“Oh yeah.” Kiibo scratched his (metal) head bashfully, “My eyes can detect and translate any language.”

“Impressive.”

“Thanks!”

There was an awkward silence as Kiibo played with his metallic hands, not knowing how to continue a conversation that Maki had no interest in pursuing. Maki just wanted him to leave her alone.

“Why are you trying to read a book you can’t understand?”

Maki sighed in frustration. She had just wanted to be alone in a room that wasn’t filled to the brim with deadly weapons, but she could always just go to her room. Maki got up from her seat and started to put the book back into the self.

Kiibo went from nervous to panicked (and maybe a bit desperate).

“Did I do something to offend you?”

Maki just ignored him and strode out of the library.

“If so, I’m sorry!”

She just wanted to be alone with her thoughts -

“I’ll make it up to you!”

-for once in her life.

* * *

Night came surprisingly quickly for both Kokichi and Maki, and they both left their respective rooms to meet up at Maki’s lab (Kokichi even had to sneak around a bit, since some people who had fallen asleep seemed to have wanted some fresh air).

“I haven’t seen Monokuma in a while.”

“Yep, not even his annoying children!”

“I thought that Monokuma would’ve announced a new motive already. Did you know this would happen?”

“Nope! I thought he would’ve jumped at the chance to yell at us!”

“So you don’t know what’s going on? You weren’t expecting this?”

“Nope!”

“Did you even have a plan?”

“What? Of course I did!” 

“Then does this go against the original plan?”

“Well, it wasn’t what I expected…”

Maki (once again) sighed in frustration and maybe a little bit of exhaustion. “Maybe I would be more helpful if you actually told me what your plans are.”

“Nope, not yet! First you have to prove yourself.”

“And how am I supposed to do that?”

Kokichi shrugged, “I don’t know, let’s just wait and see.”

There was a tense silence. 

“So where were you today?”

“Where were you?”

“The library, I ran into Kiibo. Then I went to my room. Now answer my question.”

“Ooooh, our top suspect! Notice anything weird?”

“Not really. Now answer my question.”

“Oh, you know… I was just out and about, wandering the empty halls.”

“That’s it?”

“Yep!”

Maki went silent again, trying to think of some way for Kokichi to even give her a hint of a plan. She couldn’t come up with any foolproof ideas though.

“Are you planning on coming to breakfast tomorrow?”

“Uhhh yeah? Why wouldn’t I, Maki?”

“Because most of them are probably going to jump you the second you enter their proximity. You’re lucky everyone was tired today.”

“Aww, don’t worry about me so much Maki. I can handle myself!”

“I’m not protecting you if you’re attacked.”

“Well duh! I’m sure you’d appreciate someone else killing me off, right?”

More tense silence, this time broken by Kokichi.

“But, really, I’ll be fine!”

“...Yeah, I suppose no one would kill you in public. And maybe some abuse would do you some good.”

“Mmmhmmm… now you’ve got it, my knight! Think of the benefits! Plus, it’s not like I can hide forever!”

“They do have a detective on their side…”

“But it’s not like they could catch me anyways! I mean, I bet I could even beat you in a game of tag~”

Maki’s glare steadied on Kokichi.

“I honestly doubt that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if that ending seemed too normal for our unstable companions, but this chapter was pretty normal in general. It was really just a transition chapter, and the next one may be that too. You just gotta wait for Monokuma, if he ever does come back…
> 
> [My Tumblr](https://mirror-face.tumblr.com/)


	6. Chapter 2- Daily Life IV- Bye

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kokichi finally goes to breakfast and Kiibo tries to be Maki’s friend. The magic show still isn’t happening.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bye- What you get when you can’t play a round, but are still continuing to play in the tournament.

Maki sighed in exasperation at the sound of yelling she heard from the dining room as she entered. She was starting to get used to everyone’s antics (a scary thought), but it was still annoying to hear everyone’s nonsensical shouting first thing in the morning.

Kaito was yelling about something stupid to Shuichi, who would occasionally nod as glanced around and studied everything in the room. Kirumi fussed around the table, placing plates down in a stack and organizing the many platters of food that she had made. Ryoma glanced at Maki as she entered, before going back to watching Kirumi, waiting patiently for his food. Tsumugi and Gonta were talking in the corner with Kiibo, who turned and waved as Maki came in through the door (she ignored him).

Everyone else (including Kokichi) wasn’t there at the moment. It was surprising how much noise so few people (mostly Kaito) could make.

Maki got into an empty chair, making sure that no one else was sitting near it. It was a futile attempt, however, since Kiibo (as nervous and stuttering as the day before) walked up to Maki and sat in the seat next to her, back as stiff as a board. He awkwardly sat, not looking at her at all.

“What are you doing?”

“A-ah, well…” Kiibo cleared his throat (was that a thing robots could do?), “As a sincere apology for yesterday, I was thinking that we could eat breakfast together. I-I don’t exactly know what I did, but you seemed quite angry.”

Maki turned her head away from him in annoyance, he was doing the exact thing that made her abandon him in the library- bothering her. It would’ve been nice if she could just sit and eat alone, she already had to deal with an annoying little brat after all.

But she was not in the mood to argue (she never seemed to be).

“Do whatever you want.” 

And he did, so they awkwardly sat next to each other, Kiibo occasionally opening his mouth to speak before closing it once he was glared at. Maki tried not to waste such precious time, and attempted to sort out her thoughts before everyone else arrived and the chaos started. Kokichi’s arrival would be a necessary evil to confront the group’s tension filled atmosphere. Not necessarily get rid of it though, Maki doubted that could ever happen. 

As time passed, Korekiyo slunk into the room and Miu swaggered in, voice as high and boisterous as usual. Maki was just waiting for Kokichi to arrive, who she hoped wouldn’t sleep through breakfast again. She had warned him, after all.

And then, minutes later, once plates of breakfast had finally started to be passed out (despite the four people missing), Kokichi ran in- out of breath and grinning like a mad man. All eyes turned to him, and he bowed mockingly at the attention. Maki simply gave him a glance and shifted her eyes away, trying to pretend that she didn’t care about the argument that was going to happen (which was only partly true).

“Well, don’t you guys look great! Have a nice nap yesterday?”

“No thanks to you!” Kaito yelled out. Maki rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, yeah, thank me all you want, Kaito! You really have no right to complain though, I mean, I doubt Gonta was that hard to talk to. I bet it’s just because you guys are idiots!”

“Well…” Shuichi inserted himself into the conversation before Kaito started yelling again, “It was fairly difficult, considering that we had to do it in an honest manner, and was on the other side of the door.”

“Yeah… it took forever to get out of there. First we had to convince Gonta to let us out, and then we had to teach him how to slide open the lock. It was just plain exhausting.” Added in Tsumugi.

“Where in the world did you even get a lock, anyway?” Kaito yelled at Kokichi.

Kokichi shrugged his shoulders, “Where do you think? Miu, obviously! Jeez, you’re such an idiot!”

“Actually, Maki, you have a lock on your lab door too, don’t you? Where did you get that, Miu as well?” Shuichi stopped Kaito from shouting an insult at Kokichi.

“Miu too.”

“Why does everyone keep getting locks from Miu?” 

Everyone turned to look at Miu in curiosity, “B-but I only gave-”

“Heh heh, I don’t think we need to hear the pig state the obvious. When someone needs a lock, they go to the only person that can make a lock!”

Kaito scratched the back of his neck in defeat, “Yeah, I guess…” Suddenly, he hit both of his knuckles together (in what was probably meant to be a threatening gesture), “But Kokichi, where are our kubz pads?”

“Huh?”

“Our kubz pads, Kokichi. We know that they’re not in our rooms.” Said Shuichi.

“Eh? You all lost your Kubz Pads, seriously? I did too, what a coincidence! Maybe it was Monokuma?”

“Kokichi, stop lying and tell the truth.”

“Well the truth is that I’ve been dead the entire time!”

Maki just drowned out the pointless yelling, she didn’t understand why Kokichi even bothered to deny something so obvious. What was the point in goading all of their classmates into yelling at him? It was a waste of time and energy. Sure, it made him more unlikable, but-

Maki was broken out of her thoughts by yelling coming from right beside her. “Kaito, stop! Physical violence of any kind shall not be prohibited, no matter the circumstances!”

She glanced up to see Kaito, arms stiff and fists tightened into a ball. Kokichi had obviously just been punched, nursing a blooming bruise on his cheek.

“You can’t seriously be defending him!”

“I assure you, I’m not, but violence doesn’t seem like the answer, especially in tense situations, such as this.”

Kaito loosened his fist and huffed, crossing his arms in defeat (acting almost as childishly as Kokichi), “Well how else are we going to find out where the motive videos have gone! We can’t seriously trust him with those, right?”

“Weeelllll, violence isn’t always the answer, y’know! Maybe if you’d asked a little nicer, I would’ve told you!”

“No way am I asking you shit politely!”

Shuichi sighed, clearly frustrated with the stubbornness of both parties, “Kokichi, would you _ please _tell us where you put the Kubz Pads?”

Kokichi, being the asshole that he was, simply giggled and smirked, “Nope, sorry!”

“Ah! You’re such an annoying little shit! I really want to punch you right now, asshole!” Kaito held up his fist, curled up tightly, as some kind of warning.

“Well you won’t. Kaito, we just talked about this.”

“Don’t waste your breath, Kiibs, let the shitty fucker kill the annoying ass, then we’ll get rid of two idiots. Ahahahaha!”

“Gonta no think violence is answer, we all should get along. We all friends, right?”

“Oh Gonta, sometimes people just aren’t worth being friends with- he really just seems plain awful.”

“Hey, I take offense to that! Gonta and I are the best of friends, he’ll never abandon me, right Gonta?”

“Y-Yeah! Gonta never abandon friends!”

“Gonta, it’s plain to see that he’s tricking you.”

“No I’m not! I hate lies and tri-!”

The constant stream of arguing was finally put to a stop by the clanging of opening doors. Everyone (including Maki, out of some vague sort of interest) turned to look at who was entering.

“Nyahahaha! Atua brings such divine news today! It has been decided that today will be the day of the magic show!” It was Angie. Of course.

Behind her were Himiko and Tenko, the former out of breath and the latter seeming concerned. (“Himiko, are you okay?” “Nyeh… I’m fine…”)

Of course, the trio was greeted by surprise. “What the fuck was that about a shitty as fuck magic show? Who fuckin’ said anybody’s even interested? My golden brain certainly is not.”

“A magic show does seem just plain inconvenient, though maybe it will lighten the mood…”

“A magic show does seem interesting. I wonder what exactly will happen?”

“Ooooh, yay! A magic show, my favorite!”

“Shut up, Kokichi!”

Tentatively, Shuichi added in, “Has the magic show even been set up? I don’t think you were up yesterday, considering that you were trapped in Gonta’s lab with us.”

Angie, ignoring all other complaints and comments, responded to Shuichi’s question simply, “Well, Kirumi finished sewing up the curtains yesterday, and the gym’s stage doesn’t need much to set up.”

Well, that explains what Kirumi had been doing the whole of yesterday. Maki hadn’t seen the maid wandering around the halls like she usually did the day before, and it wasn’t like she had any sleep to catch up on, so Maki had wondered…

“Yes, I finished the curtains as fast as I could, as requested by Angie.”

“Nyaha, thank you Kirumi!”

“It was my pleasure.”

“And, so, now that that’s out of the way,” Maki had no idea how she came to that conclusion, “Atua requests for volunteers to help move Himiko’s equipment!”

“Nyeh… help only if you dare.”

No one bothered to argue against the magic show (though Maki was surprised that had Miu shut her mouth), Maki assumed that at least half of them wouldn’t be showing up at the magic show. Most of her classmates were probably wary of going to any more ‘events’. She didn’t exactly blame them.

Kiibo tentatively raised his hand from his place next to Maki, “If you don’t mind, I would like to help.”

Angie beamed, “Accepted! Anyone else?”

Kaito raised his hand, though surprisingly apprehensive, “Yeah, yeah, I guess I’ll do it.”

“Nyahaha! Atua accepts, that’s all we need! Tenko’ll help, right?”

“I’ll make sure those nasty boys don’t ruin anything!”

“Good, good. We should go now, Atua says that the best time to have the magic show is noon.”

“What? Now? But what about food?” Breakfast had only just been served, and Kaito had been too busy punching and arguing with Kokichi to actually eat something, the idiot.

“Time is of the essence, Kaito, Atua says we shouldn’t waste time just dawdling about.” Angie spun on her heel, facing the door and ready to walk out, “Now, time to g-!”

Static interrupted Angie, then a voice. Monokuma’s. It was about time, a whole day of silence almost made Maki (even more) worried about the oh-so-mysterious plan that Kokichi refused to tell her about.

_ “Hello, hello students! Isn’t it a wonderful day? Please make your way towards the gym right away. Anyone who refuses will be met with a gruesome end. See you there!” _

Although, maybe talking with Monokuma wasn’t the best thing ever. She could never win, could she? Maki sighed and stood up, walking past Angie and towards the door, before being shoved past by Kokichi, who flashed her a conniving grin.

“I guess we’re postponing the magic show~!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like I'm doing this every chapter, but sorry this took so long, especially since this chapter is so short. But, well, as I've mentioned before, I suck at writing conversations with so many people, which it the main reason for why certain characters didn't get very much dialogue (Kiyo got one line snuck in, and poor Ryoma was mentioned but never got a line). Honestly, one-on-one dialogue is my strong point, but I'm trying to improve as much as I can. 
> 
> Next chapter might also be a short one that will take a while, especially considering that I also have to add in Monokuma and his Monokubs. Also, expect Maki's point of view again. (now that I really think about it, I probably could've made this chapter and the next a single chapter, but I didn't want to make you guys wait any longer.)
> 
> [My Tumblr](https://mirror-face.tumblr.com/)


	7. Chapter 2- Daily Life V- Fork

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Monokuma plays dirty, and yet so incredibly fairly. It’s quite a wonder to behold.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fork: A double attack.
> 
> (insert apologies here)
> 
> This has been a surprisingly easy chapter to write, but maybe that's just because compared to the monster that I'm planning next chapter to be, everything ever is easy.
> 
> Also, thank you so much for 100 kudos, I really appreciate all the support!

The walk to the gym was tense and mildly uninteresting. There were murmurs in the quiet hallway, but everybody was mostly silent. Maki had barely spoken the whole morning, and she was planning on keeping it that way.

Kokichi skipped at the front, while everyone either sulked at the back or tried to catch up with him. Angie, surprisingly, was near the back, biting her lip nervously. Himiko trudged next to her, while Tenko looked like she was forcing herself to not run forward and leave Himiko’s side. Kiibo was near Maki, but he seemed to be stuck inside his own head. Shuichi was studying each person’s face (not unlike what Maki was doing) nervously, while Kaito walked next to him, silent but quite obviously impatient. Miu seemed to be swearing under her breath and behind her, Tsumugi commented awkwardly about the tension (nobody seems to really be listening though, Maki certainly wasn’t). Gonta loomed innocently in the back near Korekiyo. Silently, they enter the gym.

As soon as they do, no time is wasted in starting everything up as soon as possible. The Monokubs (other than Monodam) seemed oddly silent, looking around timidly from their place right below the stage (which Maki noticed did indeed have a curtain hanging which Kirumi, without much doubt, made). Not allowing for the ultimates to sit much longer in their tense silence, Monokuma instantly popped up to his podium, chattering incessantly as soon as he landed.

“Heeeelllllooooo, my precious students! Isn’t it a wonderful day? I’m so happy I could-!” Monokuma paused suddenly, and turned on his heel to face the gym’s wall, tapping his foot. “Actually wait… it’s been a terrible day.” He growled out finally, and he glanced behind his shoulder to look at his ‘students’ down below, red eye glowing, “I had to deal with some frantic rewrites because a few certain someones. And it was such a good motive as well!”

“So, I assume that you are here to give us back our Kubz Pads?” Kirumi interrupted.

“No way! That’s way too boring. Instead, I’ve decided that we’re going to have an entirely new motive for us to play with! Isn’t that just entertainment?”

“Of course, daddy! You really are the best at show running.”

“You betcha, he is. With this new amazing motive, our ratings are going to hit an all time high. It’sa ‘bout time we break up all this boring tedium.”

“Uh… what’s the motive again?”

“Monotaro! How could you forget again? You’re supposed to be our fearless leader.”

“I am your fearless leader!”

“PLEASE-GET-ALONG. DO-NOT-FIGHT.”

Both Monotaro and Monophanie trembled at Monodam’s words. “Y-yes Monodam.”

Everyone just ignored that exchange (they all seemed to be getting used to the bears’ antics, which Maki decided was probably a bad sign).

“A new motive?” Shuichi questioned, looking at Monokuma in thought, “But why? Couldn’t you just give us back our Kubz Pads?”

“Eh? Isn’t it obvious?” Monokuma had turned his body towards them once again, and was sitting on his podium, legs swinging, “We need to keep this stuff interesting! And anyways, this one is so much more fun! It’s smokin’!”

“Yeah, Shuichi, isn’t it obvious?” Kokichi mimicked, a smug, childish smirk on his face, “It’s much more fun this way!”

“Shut up, Kokichi! It’s your fault we’re even in this mess in the first place. At least we knew what to do with the Kubz Pads…”

“Huh? But I thought astronauts are all about going into the unknown? Are you really that scared?”

“What? No! I’m Kaito Mamota, Luminary of the sta-!”

“Shush, you degenerates! We at least need to know what the motive is before we panic.”

“I wasn’t panicking!”

“It’s just like you  _ males _ to lie like that!”

“I think you're talking to the wrong guy here!”

“Hey! I take offence to that.” Kokichi piped up, probably annoyed that he was getting ignored.

“Can we please just leave?” Himiko drawled, yawning, “I want to go to sleep…”

Tenko immediately looked over to Himiko, “Oh, don’t worry Himiko, I’m sure we’ll be done soon enough.” 

She yawned, “Hopefully…”

“Ehem… May I please have your attention?” Everyone looked to an impatient Monokuma, who’s left eye seemed to be twitching (were robots able to do that?), “This new motive is much more exciting than the last, and hopefully much more motivating. Everyone, look to your Monopads for a full, visual experience!”

Maki glanced down to the Monopad that she was currently holding, and noticed that it had turned on, showing a title card.

‘ **Liar Liar, Pants on Fire’**

Her eyes instantly trailed to Kokichi’s back, who was hunched over his own Monopad. It was an odd motive name, and it probably wasn’t a coincidence.

Monosuke continued where his father left off, “This motive here is very simple and very deadly, one sure to bring up the ratings. Nyow, the basics of this motive is that each one of you will get an assigned card with two very specific questions on it.” The title screen on the Monopad slid into another image, one of an empty slip of paper. 

Monophanie continued where her brother left off, “Question number one will always be the same ‘what is your name?’. The second one, however, will be a question tailored specially to you. It’s meant to, uh, target you at your weak point- revealing your secrets to your classmates.”  _ ‘What is your name?’  _ appeared on the image of the empty paper.

“YOU-MUST-ALL-BE-HONEST.”

“And if you lie while answering either question something really bad will happen. You’ll-! Wait… uh…” Monotaro scratched his head sheepishly, “what’s gonna happen again?”

Monosuke elbowed Monotaro hard in the shoulder, letting a dull ‘clang’ resonate throughout the silent gym, “Idiot!” He seethed, “You ruined the dramatic reveal!”

“DO-NOT-HURT-YOUR-BROTHER-MONOSUKE. WE-ALL-NEED-TO-GET-ALONG.”

“Shut up! We need to try and fix this somehow…”

“Oh, Monotaro” Monophanie lamented, “your memory’s only getting worse. What are we going to do with you?”

“My little cubs… has something bad happened?” Monokuma cooed.

“No!” They all shouted at once.

“Ahh well, it seems my cwute wittle cubs aren’t that smart after all.” He sighed, “Guess I’ll have to do it then…” Then he turned to everyone in the gymnasium, “If anyone of you punks lie about your answer, we’ll set you on fire, got it!”

The image switched to another, one of a student placeholder on fire. After a half minute of silence, the screen slid once again, and there was an end card. How lovely.

Instantly, there was backlash.

“What the hell!” Kaito howled, practically fuming, almost ready to slam his Monopad into the ground.

“B-b-burned a-alive?” Miu squeaked out.

“That does not seem reasonable. W-what if you burn down the gym?”

“Oohhhh wow! You’ll  _ really  _ do that! That’s so cool!”

“Heh, ‘seems like they’re targeting you, huh?”

“Ehhhh? What do’ya mean, Ryoma?”

“Well, you’re a liar, aren’t you?”

“Awwww, I didn’t know you cared so much about little old me!”

“Nope, just pointing something out…”

“Now, now my students, stuff still needs to be done. My little, sweet children are going to pass out your cards one by one. And then you can go and wallow in your own self pity, or someone else’s blood. Tonight you’ll be fine, and the next day is just your names, but the day after that… Well, I wonder just what secrets there are to uncover. Just put on a big show, I’m getting stir crazy over here!” And Monokuma hopped off the podium and escaped from sight before anyone could even yell out.

Slow and surprisingly silent, Monokuma’s children passed out small, white cards. Once Maki got her’s, she glanced around carefully, making sure that no one was going to look over her shoulder. She turned it over and read the card. The first one was expected and easy to answer, she wasn’t lying about her name. The second question, however, was expected but not welcomed.

_ ‘What is your ultimate talent?” _

Maki sighed and rolled her eyes. Of course her luck would be this bad. First Kokichi, now this. It seemed, so far, that the secret of her talent was her biggest weakness. At least she’ll have some sort of help (if Kokichi decided that keeping her secret was worth the effort, that is).

Once again, she glanced at the so-called ‘chessmaster’, he seemed to be annoyed by the words written on his card.

A few people tried to gather everyone together to discuss the motive (specially Kaito and Shuichi), but Maki couldn’t even bear being in the vicinity of so many possible enemies.

Ignoring Kaito’s cry of “Maki!”, she bolted from the gym, afraid that they would try to look at her question (and then wonder why her talent was such a big deal) or have Kaito try to make everyone answer their questions beforehand.  _ That  _ would be a nightmare.

And so, Maki hid out in her lab, waiting for Kokichi to hurry up and talk to her about what they were going to do. Maybe, he would actually tell her his plan. (But that was wishful thinking, wasn’t it?)

A short while later of Maki doing mostly nothing (excluding her side eye glances towards a certain Kubz Pad), Kokichi finally arrived, swinging open the door as soon as he unlocked it. Scrunched up in his left hand was the motive. He wasn’t smiling.

Wordlessly, Maki showed him her card. Kokichi grabbed it and unfolded it as he let her grab his own.

It read, ‘ _ Are you the mastermind?’ _

Maki sighed deeply, a mix of exhaustion and exasperation. It seemed that someone wasn’t a big fan of their plan (whatever that even was).

“So, what do we do?”

Kokichi was still looking at her card, “I honestly don’t know anymore.” He sounded oddly defeated. That was a first.

“You’re plan didn’t take this type of thing into account?”

“I can’t see the future, can I?”

“Well, we’ll have to think of something.” She couldn’t let her secret get out. No matter what.

Kokichi simply hummed thoughtfully, still staring down at her card.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Shut up, Kokichi" is everyone's favorite phrase.
> 
> (also I'm scared of writing next chapter, oh god I have things I want to do oh god-)
> 
> [My Tumblr](https://mirror-face.tumblr.com/)


	8. Chapter 2- Daily Life VI- Isolated Pawns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which there is planning, conversations, and a magic show. All of which are completely non-suspicious.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing hard
> 
> (also, the end notes are long and contain spoilers, read the chapter first)

“I don’t think that there’s any way to prevent this motive from happening. Even if we destroy our cards, Monokuma is still going to ask those questions, and we'll have no choice but to answer them.”

“The cards and first question is just intimidation, it’s trying to scare us into murder. It's a countdown to put pressure on us.”

Kokichi sighed, “Not to mention the whole burning us alive thing. That’s pretty messed up. And motivating.”

“So we’re just going to give up?”

“It’s not giving up, it’s being smart. We’ve been backed into a corner, big deal, now we have to make the most of it.”

“I’m surprised you’re not upset about this.”

“Oh, I am. Just think about all of those poor, wonderful plans- all down the drain now. But it isn’t _ my _terrible, dark secret on the line here, right?”

“Well what the fuck am I supposed to do? Just hope that no one tries to kill me in my sleep? Hope that _ I _don’t end up in a position where I have to kill someone?” Maki growled, balling up her fists. “I can’t believe this. Maybe we shouldn’t have messed with the motives in the first place, kept our head low.”

“No way! First off, the plan is to let no one die, not until we find out who the mastermind is. And, well, isn’t it pointless thinking about all of these ‘what ifs’? We should think about the future!”

“There’s nothing that’s going to change how they feel about me.”

“You mean how they feel about your talent?”

“Same thing.”

“What do you want to do then?”

“I don’t know.”

“And you expect me to know?”

“I’m not the one flouncing around claiming to have a plan. There’s a difference between being confident and being an idiot.”

“And I walk a fine line between them, right?”

“No, you’re far into the idiot category. So, come up with a plan. I’ll try to think of something, and maybe try to get on better terms with everyone, but…” she paused, “you’re better at planning these types of things.”

Kokichi was silent for a moment, contemplating her order. Honestly, he was surprised that he was even considering just letting her secret go, that was his blackmail. He still needed her for whatever desperate plan that he ended up hatching later on. Maybe he trusted her to stay with him? After all, Maki hadn’t tried to kill him, despite all of her many chances to. It was probably all getting to his head.

What Kokichi was suggesting wasn’t the ideal option -the ideal option was impossible- but at least no one had to die. “I’ll try,” he said, and that was only partly a lie (he would think about trying and if he found a good option, then his promise would become a full-truth), “but only if you do too.”

“Yeah, yeah- you’re not lying, right?”

“Nope!” He lied.

“If you are, I’ll kill you.”

A shiver ran up Kokichi’s spine, he was never going to get used to those casual murder threats, espisically when the person giving them was a cold-blooded killer herself. Instead of letting his fear be obvious, he gave a safe answer that would most likely get on Maki’s nerves (which was the best type of answer, in his opinion).

“I’d expect no less!”

Maki’s fists tightened a bit, balling up like she was about to punch him, a tell-tale sign that he’d done exactly what he had wanted to. Once her fingers let out the built up tension and Kokichi was sure he was in a punch free zone, he decided that it was time to change the waves of the conversation.

“Anyyywaays, now that that whole thing is over, do you want a quick summary of the post-danger meeting?”

“Did anything important even happen there?”

“Of course, silly!

“What was it?” 

“Weeeelllll… Kaito tried to demand that we all just answer the questions right there and then, which is stupid because people could just easily lie then kill someone later. Of course, when I pointed it out, grumpy pants Kaito yelled at me!”

“I really don’t care about that. Is there any _ useful _information?”

“I know a few people’s questions.”

“Go on.”

“I wasn’t asking for your permission… Well! Himiko’s was a question about magic, Kaito got something about dying…” He trailed off, trying to recall anything else. Honestly, not much important information was disclosed at that meeting (if he could even call it that). Actually next to nothing was revealed, which may or may not have been Kokichi’s fault.

“That’s it?”

“Yeah… kinda.”

“You didn’t even remember what the specific wording of the questions was, idiot. What are we supposed to get from that?”

Kokichi shrugged, “Kaito could be dying?”

“That probably wasn’t even what the question was about. For all we know, you misremembered it.”

“My memory isn’t _ that _bad!” In all honesty, he was only half paying attention to the whole thing, which was pretty impressive considering that he was still reeling from the motive.

“Are we done then?”

Kokichi pouted, “Well, I guess if you _ want _us to be done…”

“I really do.”

“You’re so meaaannn! Ugh… I can’t believe I promised to help you.”

“Don’t act like you’re not getting out of it either.”

He simply shrugged, “Hmmm… well, I guess there isn’t really anything else to talk about.” Sighing, he got up from where he was sitting on the floor and started walking towards the door, “Anyyyways, I just remembered that I have stuff to do- unlike you. I’m a very busy guy, and I have the whole day ahead of me!”

“Yeah, right.” Maki grumbled.

“So, we’re not going to be meeting later tonight. Oh! And remember to not die, not murder anyone, and to always lock your door!”

And with that, he wandered off to Miu’s lab, hoping that the designs that he had asked for weren’t ridiculously stupid.

* * *

Maki sighed, all alone in her talent lab, no plan of action to attend to. She didn’t know where Kokichi was going or what he was going to do (as usual), and he hadn’t given her a task or anything to spend her time on. She sighed. While she was starting to get used to Kokichi’s ambiguity and general shittyness, it was still annoying as hell.

She walked towards the door. Maki could use some fresh air, and maybe tea if the dining room was empty. 

After locking her lab’s door (who did Kokichi think he was, reminding her to lock it like she would forget something so important), she walked silently down the hall. The trip was quiet and uneventful, something that Maki could appreciate. Once she made it downstairs to the dining hall, Maki glanced around, no one was walking around. Good.

Hoping that her luck would follow her into the dining room, Maki opened the door.

“Oh Maki, it’s quite a coincidence to find you here.” It was Kiibo.

God damn it.

Maki desperately hoped that Kiibo would just leave her alone, but considering how desperate the robot had seemed earlier that day at breakfast, it was probably unlikely. She barely acknowledged him- just gave him a small, polite nod, wanting to hurry up and get her tea.

He obviously couldn’t read body language though, as he stumbled out of his seat to try in a desperate attempt to talk to her. Either Kiibo was an idiot or just ignoring her quiet request to fuck off. But, no matter what the answer to that was one thing was clear, he had trapped her in a conversation.

Trying not to growl at him under her breath, she asked, “What do you want?”

He shuffled his feet in his familiar nervous gesture, “A-ah well, I was just curious if we could maybe talk?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?” Hope tinted his voice, like he expected her to reconsider.

“Yes. Now leave.”

“But with the new motive out, it’s not safe for people to wander around alone.”

“How do I know that you’re not going to kill me?”

Surprisingly, her question seemed to actually catch him off guard. Did he really not expect her to point that out?

“Uh, well, don’t worry! It is simply illogical to assume that I would even think about attacking you, let alone commit the act of murder.”

“...That’s not really a reason.”

“Well, there never will be a passable explanation for why someone ‘can’t’ murder, with a few exceptions that depend on physical setbacks. The best you can have is my word, which I implore is the truth.”

“You literally just proved my point, all I have is your word. Why should I trust that?”

Kiibo paused, spluttering as he tried to think of a reasonable answer to her question (which she honestly just asked so he could leave her alone), “T-the three laws of robotics!”

“What?”

“Uh…” Kiibo seemed to be embarrassed by his outburst, “Well, the three rules of robotics is essentially a guideline, or a list of three restrictions, made to help steer the ethic-based decision making of A.I of all types. The list was originally conceived by a rather popular science fiction writer, named Isaac Asimov, in 1942. The first law is that a robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. The second law is that a robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. And, finally, the third law is that a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.”

There was silence as Maki processed his words. She had never heard of those laws before, nor the name of the guy who had created them. But, that did make sense considering that she had never really wasted any of her time reading fiction. Well, either way, it was a stupid argument to make.

“But you clearly don’t follow the three laws of robotics.”

“Huh?”

“You wouldn’t do anything I say just because I said it, right? If you’re able to deny an order of your own free will, then you’re not tied to the rules of robotics. That means you’re still able to kill me.”

“Oh… uh…” He blinked, still trying to process what she had just said, before his face brightened, “Wait… y-you’re right! I don’t follow the laws of robotics!”

Maki scoffed, “You seriously just realized that?”

“P-perhaps it is the first time I’ve really thought about it. The professor never really told me much about how I function, supposedly humans are supposed to question how they work as well.”

“Not that many people are existential, only the ones with way too much time on their hands.”

Kiibo paused, contemplating her words, “Maybe. But it’s not like there’s much to do here, right?”

There was a short pause, before Maki interrupted the silence. “Why do you even want to… talk to me so much anyways?”

“Ah well, in the library- when you stormed out- I had thought that I had offended you somehow. However, I have gotten some sound advice from Shuichi, and have come to the conclusion that you are indeed just shy. As such, I have decided to become your friend.”

So, it was that idiot detective’s fault.

Maki felt her fingers curl up into a tight fist. She took a breath, and tried to relax before she ended up punching the poor robot.

“I think that you misread a few signs.”

“Well, either way, it’s best not to be alone, especially in a dangerous environment such as this. It’s best you make allies.” Maki stopped herself from groaning out loud, he was sounding way too much like Kokichi. “And besides, my inner voice seems to think that talking to you more would be a good idea!”

“...Inner voice?”

“Oh, yeah, I haven’t mentioned that before. It’s kind of hard to explain. It’s a voice in my head that usually leads me in the right direction. Uh, morally, I mean.”

A voice in his head? That seemed pretty stupid, “Maybe you actually are following the rules of robotics then, if all you do is follow a random voice in your head.”

Kiibo shrugged, less insulted than she would’ve thought he would be, “I like to think of it as listening to a higher power. People do it all the time.”

“Only the weird ones.” All of the religious people Maki had ever met were pretty freaky (Angie included). “I mean, don’t you have anything better to do than bother me just because a stupid voice told you to?” 

He seemed to seriously contemplate her question “Ah! I forgot to tell you! Angie has been saying that the magic show will be starting around nighttime. I’m helping out with the set!”

That was… surprising. Maki had assumed that Angie would wait at least a day before just continuing her on with her stupid magic show. “You better not be asking me to help you.”

“No! Of course not. If you do not wish to, you do not have to.”

Maki sighed, “Whatever. Are you done talking to me now?”

“Um, but, I found this conversation to be quite enjoyable. I feel that we’re becoming good friends.”

Oh god.

Maki could either argue back or just let him stick around. She really did want to be alone, but the effort of arguing with the surprisingly stubborn robot would be too much to be worth it. She sighed, “Fine. Do whatever you want.”

And she went over to the kitchen. She might as well get her tea, even if she did have to be subjected to Kiibo’s ramblings while she drank it.

* * *

Kokichi, meanwhile, was busy bantering with the (sadly) most reliable person in the school.

“Miu, I expect you to hurry the hell up, okay? I’m a paying customer here, and if you die before I get everything I need I will murder your ghost with your own corpse.”

“Shut the fuck up, you fuckin’ ass. Have more faith in my genius talent, and you’re not even a paying customer.”

“Hmmm? What was that, Miu?”

“Fucking never mind.”

“So, how’s the project going? I assume you have the blueprints?”

“You fuckin’ bet I do! I’d be surprised if you didn’t want to touch yourself just by holding them!” She slid the rolled up blueprints towards him.

Ignoring her annoying comment, Kokichi snatched them up quickly and unrolled one quickly. Small cross shape with an easily accessible button, it seemed surprisingly good. Of course, he didn’t know anything on the technical side of things- but it wasn’t stupid looking and seemed like it would do its job.

“Accepted and confirmed,” He said, handing the blueprints back.

“B-but you only looked at one! There are other designs and-”

“Shut up.” Miu simply whimpered in response, letting him continue, “I already saw one that I like, what’s the point in looking at the others?”

“U-uh, well, I s-s-spent a lot of time on them and-”

“Nope, don’t care. Just do your job.”

“Ugh… fine… You unappreciative asshole…” She snatched her blueprints back, laying them back carefully on the table.

“You don’t have to be so mean about it.”

“Shut the fuck up, shitty fucker.”

He just giggled at the insult, and turned his back to her. “Now hurry up and make it before you die~.” Kokichi called, already starting out the door. Miu simply grumbled back. Jeez… tired Miu was pretty boring to talk to.

The walk back to Maki’s lab was pretty uneventful, filled with the drab sounds of his footsteps.

* * *

Kokichi woke up to Maki nudging him with her foot like he was dead roadkill. He was on the floor of her lab again, groaning as he opened his eyes to look at her looming over him, she looked impatient.

“Whhhhattt?”

“You fell asleep. It’s nighttime now, and, as you probably haven’t heard, the magic show is now. They just needed a little time to set up the stage.”

“Ugghhhh… that’s still happening?” Kokichi moaned again, starting to blink away the morning moisture from his eyes, and attempted to get up from the floor, before falling back down on the floor- back sore and brain drowsy.

“Obviously. Do you really think that Angie would’ve given up on the magic show again?”

“Hmmmm. I _ guess _ you’re right…”

“Yeah, now hurry up so we can get this stupid magic show over with.” She paused, keeping silent for a moment, before she finally decided to ask, “Have you thought of a plan yet?”

How predictable.

“Yep, but I’ll tell you tomorrow, when we’ll have all the time in the world.” In all honesty, that was a lie. After his meeting with Miu he hadn’t done much besides inspecting more of the weapons just lying around Maki’s lab and then promptly passing out on the floor. He really had to stop doing that.

Kokichi wasn’t exactly sure how he would quell Maki’s rage later, but he was in no mood to deal with her losing her temper. He supposed that was for future-Kokichi to think about.

Maki was still glaring at him impatient, “Get. Up.”

“Jeez… Just give me a sec.” And he finally pushed himself up and off the floor.

“And behave once we get there, you interrupting the entire thing will be too annoying- and I’m pretty sure that we both don’t want this magic show to be longer than it has to be.”

“Pfft! Who are you, my mom?”

“I just want you to be less annoying than usual.”

“Okay, mom!”

Maki growled, “Shut up.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, now leave!”

“What about you?”

“Wouldn’t it be weird if we both entered the gym together? You leave first and I’ll leave in five minutes or so.”

“...I guess that works.” And she left the room promptly, leaving him all alone.

* * *

As Maki walked into the gym, she noticed that Kirumi, Kaito, Angie, and Himiko were waiting there already. That meant that she was the first person that wasn’t on set-up duty to arrive. Maybe she was too early?

She looked back to the gym’s door, just in time to see it open. It was Gonta, with both Shuichi and Tsumugi trailing behind.

Maki opted to just stand in the back of the gym and wait for everyone to arrive, although she was mostly doing it to make sure that Kokichi would actually come.

As she was thinking, the gym had filled up some more, and even Kokichi had entered. He stood near her, but not so much so that it was suspicious. (Though Maki was surprised by how close he was to her, she’d thought that Kokichi would’ve preferred being on the other side of the room.)

Unsurprisingly, Ryoma and Miu weren’t in the gym. However, neither were Tenko and Kiibo, two people who she was sure should’ve been there. That was odd, to say the least.

Kokichi glanced around the room, making sure that no one was watching, before raising his haunches and whispered in her ear, “Kiibo’s not here. I’m going to the library. Keep watch here” before slipping out the door at a pace that no one could catch him at, closing the doors behind him. No one had seemed to notice, considering that they were all still concerned about Himiko-

And, suddenly, Maki was hit with a question. Where was Tenko? Searching the crowd (like she would even need to do that for Tenko), Maki finally processed the fact that the girl wasn’t in the gym. Why? Tenko was clearly obsessed with Himiko and her safety, so her forgetting to go to the magic show was odd. Kiibo at least made some sense, if the narrative that he was the mastermind was true. 

Maki released a sigh of pure exhaustion.

That thought led her to pondering some of the more pressing matters at hand. The thing was, Maki wasn’t entirely sure if Kokichi had really thought anything through, considering that he’d just kind of left for the library as a spur of the moment thing. If Kiibo was the mastermind, would he really choose to open the secret door while everyone was gathering? Sure, it guaranteed that everyone was out of the library and in one space, but it would be much easier for others to notice that someone was missing. Would the mastermind really be that clumsy? It was much more likely that the whole thing was a trap, or that Kiibo simply wasn’t the mastermind.

This whole thing was just exhausting to think about. Nothing really made sense, despite how confident Kokichi was about his suspicions. He was probably just clinging on to any semi-plausible theory that he could think of. It would be sad how desperate he was if she wasn’t stuck with him as a partner.

Maki shook her thoughts out of her head and tried to pay attention to the conversation in front of her. She shouldn’t bother thinking about it anyways, Kokichi could die for all she cared.

* * *

Kokichi wasn’t exactly running towards the hallway, it was more of speed-walking than anything, it would be way too suspicious of him to be going any faster than he was at the moment, despite the low chance of anyone at all seeing him. But, Kiibo could pop out at any moment, ready to catch him in the act of following.

In all honesty, the whole setup was probably a trap- a very, very obvious trap. He hadn’t brushed that fact aside. The thing was, whether the whole thing was a trap or not, it was still a way to catch the mastermind in the act. And so, he had decided to compromise. He had to sneak around, he wouldn’t confront the mastermind- that would be completely and totally stupid. Instead, he would just confirm that it was Kiibo and then decide what to do with that information later.. 

Kokichi hummed, taking in the calmness of the halls. It reminded him of just mere days before, when everyone had been holed up in their rooms. It had been much more scary last time, considering how everyone was after his head then. Well, his classmates still were, but their anger had been dulled with both time and the motive.

Ugh… the motive. Monokuma had been bad enough just by himself, but then adding the fact that he was actively trying to sabotage him (and Maki, he supposed), he couldn’t help but relish in the thought of punting him into the sun. Or maybe he could do that to Kiibo, considering that he was the mastermind…

Well, anyways, the point was that Kokichi couldn’t wait for Miu’s invention to finally be done, so he could destroy those stupid (and totally there cameras). Then he wouldn't have to worry about being spied on any longer. But that would mean that his excuse for not giving Maki any information wouldn’t exist. That would suck.

Kokichi stopped at the bottom of the stairs, looking down the basement’s hall. Hopefully he wasn’t too late. Maki would be so annoyed if he abandoned her for no reason.

He continued walking to the library, where he paused in front of the door, hand ready to open it. Maybe luck would be on his side?

Without any further thought, Kokichi yanked the door open, and hopped right into the classroom, eyes already on the spot where the hidden door should be (along with the mastermind. His mouth opened to say something, and his eyes went wide.

The library was empty.

“God damnit…” Kokichi grumbled. The world really did hate him, didn’t it?

Well, what was he supposed to do now? Go back to the magic show and draw attention to himself? He would rather just catch up on his sleep or plan for the next day where he’d have to very unsuspiciously defend Maki.

And so, he decided to just walk back to his room. He might as well, considering that he wasn’t particularly interested in something as lame as a magic show. He could just tell Maki later after the show, or during their little nighttime meet up. So he set off in that direction, walking to the dorms

He was sure that Maki could deal with something as simple as a magic show.

* * *

The magic show was fairly boring. Tenko wasn’t dead or anything, as she had entered just as the magic show had started, blubbering out some sort of apology about how she had lost track of the time. There was only one act (which was kind of odd, considering all of the magician’s tools that Himiko’s lab supplied), and aside from a single tense moment in which everyone thought HImiko had been eaten alive, nothing of interest really happened. Really, the only noteworthy thing was the fact that Kokichi didn’t return, which may or may not have had Maki a little worried.

He was probably not dead, and even if he was, Maki wouldn’t have minded. Just another nuisance taken care of…

(If Kokichi _ was _still alive, he better have had a good reason for ditching her.)

Maki turned her attention back to the stage, where Himiko was bowing in front of the large water tank. Everything seemed fine. Well and good. Probably nothing had happened to Kokichi (though, again, she didn’t care).

Tenko clapped for Himiko, and Angie laughed. Everyone else simply congratulated her on the well-executed trick. Maki was the first one to leave, not wanting to stay in the stupid gym any longer than she had to. The doors were closed, and she pushed them open forcefully.

She skirted the edge of the small hall (the passageway between the gym and the rest of the school), knowing that the others would most likely follow behind her. Maki sighed as she trudged through, almost missing how her right leg bumped into one of the small locker doors that lined the bottom of the corridor’s walls.

That was odd. The lockers should’ve been completely flat. Her eyes glanced down to the locker in question. It was Kiibo’s. 

Maki, curious and wary, crouched down to stare at the ajar locker door. It was almost fully closed, and would’ve been if the person who had opened it had paid attention to what they were doing. She grabbed the door’s edge and swung it open, not realizing that something would fall out.

Her breath caught as metal pieces hit the ground with multiple dull ‘thuds’.

“Er, Maki, what’s wrong?” The detective walked over, and she could imagine that he was trembling from where he stood behind her. That made sense, she thought vaguely- he probably wasn’t used to death like her.

**“Ehem… a body has finally been discovered! Any stragglers should make their way to the gymnasium immediately!” **sounded the body discovery announcement, because scattered to bits on the ground were the metal parts of K1-B0, the robot that had, only the day before, promised that he would try his hardest to befriend Maki.

Maki tried to calm her breathing.

**Chapter 2- Secrets, Lies, and Death’s Divide**

**Deadly Life**

**Begin**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Phew… this took way too much time to write. Uh, sorry? Yeah, literally zero excuses except for “writing hard” so, yeah. Well, anyways, surprise I guess. Did any of you think Kiibo was going to die? Do any of you already know who the murderer is? You guys probably already do…
> 
> Alright, I’m going to pretense deadly life with this, I can’t write mysteries. I know that it’s kind of stupid for me to basically write a mystery, but this story is mostly for the friendship anyways so. Yeah. Basically, I’m saying that if you already know who the culprit is right now, that makes perfect sense because I decided to make it not-complicated so I, as a writer, could handle it. So please bear with me, people.
> 
> Also, on a non-exciting note, I’ve decided that it’s about time I update the tags to include things like the whole cast and a little bit more detail, so that’ll happen eventually. I’m also planning on editing every chapter before I start on the next chapter, because (very fun fact) I hate editing my chapters so I assume that there is probably a lot of basic spelling/grammar mistakes and awkward wording for me to fix. It makes me feel bad to think about, so I’ll have to endure the torture of reading my own work. And don’t be surprised if the summary ends up changing, I honestly kind of hate it right now.
> 
> Wish me luck, then. Hopefully I’ll get a chapter out at a reasonable time someday. And thanks for reading.
> 
> *Extra notes:  
Just assume that everyone has pockets and that’s where they keep their monopads because I honestly have no other explanation  
Kirumi was originally going to be the first victim, with the murder scene being completely trashed for irony purposes, before I realized that that was stupid and killed Kiibo instead  
Originally, Miu was going to set off the bda by finding a stray nail in the hallway. She would’ve held it up to inspect and someone would’ve asked what she was holding and she was going to make an inappropriate joke about screws. I was planning on being clever and having the fact that if that nail was once a part of his body it counts for the bda, but then I realized that that made zero sense (because the bda probably wouldn’t ring for a stray finger) and dropped it for the locker  
If you go in front of the gym in V3, there are small lockers with everyone’s name on it. You can’t interact with it and it’s not actually mentioned in game, but it’s a small detail that I thought would be cool to use
> 
> [My Tumblr](https://mirror-face.tumblr.com/)

**Author's Note:**

> [My Tumblr](https://mirror-face.tumblr.com/)


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